Ishida technology has helped a major Saudi poultry processor reach rates of 37,500 birds-per-hour.

Saudi Arabian food company Almarai has been developed to keep pace both with growing demand and with changing consumer preferences.

The $3.3bn turnover company is the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy company and the biggest food manufacturer and distributor in the region.

Almarai’s Alyoum poultry brand involved setting up a new fascory with the help of the Meyn Ishida alliance.

Meyn are poultry processing systems experts, and Ishida supplied the weighing, packing and end-of-line expertise to Almarai.

The factory has now developed into a 37,000 birds per hour, 200 million birds per year facility.

The equipment supplied included re-hanging and cut-up systems, deboning machinery, multihead weighers, checkweighers, tray sealers and batching and grading systems as well as X-ray inspection systems and metal detectors. In addition there are scanners, strapping and trussing machines and glazing equipment and also the many associated infeed systems.

The level of integration is exceptional, thanks to a single organisation being in charge of supply and installation. Live bird handling, slaughter, evisceration, chilling, cut-up, deboning, batching and grading, weighing, piece mixing, packing, labelling and crating are all linked by, and contribute to, information exchange that enhances quality, efficiency and speed.

Once plucked, eviscerated and chilled, chickens can be sent for grading and packing as whole birds or delivered to one of the plant’s three cut-up systems.

For the whole birds, there are separate lines for packing into bags and trays.