The company that last week had a strong presence at the Anuga FoodTec exhibition in Cologne Germany and prior to that at the CFIA exhibition in Rennes, France, is finding a strong market in countries of Eastern Europe.

Lima is also seeing an improved share of the market in the Latin American countries.

According to Bernard le Bris, the growth in consumption of poultry meat in these areas where the economies are growing is presenting more raw product in the form of wings, legs and neck portions that are suitable for meat-bone separation.

Companies are now able to recover a greater tonnage of meat that is suitable for the production of products such as cooked sausage and meat balls.

Last year Lima introduced a new size of machine that is helping it cover every part of the market better in terms of capacity, but its focus is on developing specific tools for niche markets, such as models that recover the meat from the "V" bone and neck bones of chicken and turkey.

The systems that have been developed can recover meat that is very close to ground meat in terms of texture and quality, Mr le Bris said.

He added that the company is trying to cover all aspects of meat bone separation and it is also covering the whole world, with 93 per cent of its sales outside of France and 67 per cent outside of the EU.