The South Korean enterprise Harim Group selected Marel Poultry to install four new poultry-processing lines spread over five floors in the fully modernized plant in the city of Iksan. Both companies know each other very well. The Dutch manufacturer of poultry-processing solutions already installed many advanced systems in Harim’s plants in Korea and the United States.

“We have great confidence in Marel Poultry and their people,” says Hong-kuk Kim, chairman of Harim Group. “We highly appreciate the cooperation, and it’s always a pleasure working with them.”

The complete reconstruction of the Iksan factory involves an extension to six (later to seven) processing lines. Four new high-speed Marel Poultry lines will be installed, which will turn this plant into one of the largest poultry-processing facilities in Asia.

A unique feature will be the impressive visitor’s center, including a 1,640-foot-long, windowed corridor which offers a complete view of the production process in the factory. It illustrates the vision of openness of chairman Kim.

“We like to show how our operations succeed in producing good quality and healthy chicken meat with a strong focus on hygiene, food safety and good working conditions,” he says.

Latest technologies

The four new Marel Poultry processing lines will make use of the latest technologies in scalding, defeathering, evisceration and chilling. Stork Nuova, the world’s most efficient eviscerator with integrated giblet harvesting line, will be at the heart of the evisceration department. All four lines will include low-maintenance, self-calibrating, high-speed SmartWeighers and advanced equipment monitoring.

Conveying 65 feet high

In Korea, little land is available for new construction, as 75 percent of the country is covered by mountains. Harim cleverly solved this problem by designing a five-story building, attached to the existing plant, that expanded the production area from 861,111 square feet to 1,614,586.

Spacious air chill tunnels, which use proven Stork DownFlow “Plus” technology, will be positioned on the top floor. A Stork overhead conveyor system distributes broilers to all departments, keeping all processes completely inline. In Harim’s Iksan plant, this conveyor bridges a spectacular height difference of more than 65 feet, necessary to reach all stories.

This exceptional plant will bring poultry processing literally to new heights.  NP