The €8 million investment will go towards modernizing the unit's frying department, including the expansion of the building and installation of new cooking and packaging lines enabling implementation of new technologies and packaging solutions, HKScan said.

The new cooking lines will reduce the unit's energy consumption by five percent, while the carbon footprint will be further reduced by switching from electricity to gas.

"The market for fried products and ground meat-based, ready-to-eat foods such as meatballs, nuggets and cutlets is growing fast," said Anne Mere, chairwoman of the management board of HKScan Estonia. "We want to further develop this attractive category and thereby secure HKScan's competitive edge within this segment. Our upcoming investment in state-of-the-art technologies will allow us to launch innovative new products and packaging solutions. At the same time, it will boost our productivity, increase our capacity, and allow us to expand our export volumes on neighboring markets and even further away."

The group considers Estonia an important market and will constantly contribute to local farms and production facilities. "The investment in our Rakvere unit demonstrates our ambition to strengthen our market leadership in Estonia and across the Baltics, which requires constant improvement of our local farms and production facilities as well as modernization of our ways of working," HKScan CEO Jari Latvanen said.

HKScan Estonia is part of the Finnish HKScan Group, which operates in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Baltics, and exports products to approximately 50 countries. HKScan's net revenue in 2016 was €1.9 billion. As of the end of last year, the group employed a total of around 7,300 employees.