Chicago, Feb. 26 - JBT Corporation announced today that its JBT FoodTech business was awarded a euro 10.35 million (approximately US $14 million) contract to supply tomato processing equipment for a new plant in Ningxia, China.
The contract is with COFCO Xinjiang Tunhe Co. Ltd. (Tunhe), Asia's largest and the world's second largest tomato processing enterprise. Tunhe is a subsidiary of COFCO, China's major agricultural trading and food processing enterprise.
JBT FoodTech will supply three complete tomato processing lines for the greenfield Ningxia facility, which will produce tomato products for both Tunhe's domestic and export markets in over 80 countries worldwide.
"This project marks an important milestone in Tunhe's formidable expansion. We are very pleased with Tunhe's confidence in JBT's leading tomato processing technology and proven track record for field service and technical support," said Juan Podesta, Vice President and General Manager for JBT FoodTech's Food Processing Systems Division. "We remain firmly committed to continue broadening our technical and manufacturing capabilities in China to serve the local food industry."
The order was received in December 2008 with the project currently scheduled to be operational in the third quarter of 2009.