ConAgra Foods has announced that it is getting out of the meatpacking business and is prepared to shed other farm-related companies as it concentrates on big brands and value-added foods, its chief executive has said in a report by the Associated Press.

The company's CEO Bruce Rohde said that the company's focus had to be narrowed down, just days after ConAgra finalised a $1.4 billion (€1.43bn) sale of its fresh beef and pork plants.

"The dirt-to-dinner concept, which was out there, I dropped that," Rohde said. "That was about us, it wasn't about consumers and customers.

"I've tried to drop the teachings of the past that I don't think are going to push us to the future," Rohde said.

ConAgra is the US's second largest retail food supplier, behind Kraft Foods, and the largest foodservice manufacturer. It had $27 billion in sales last year and carries a number of the nation's most recognised food brands.

Analysts are now speculating that ConAgra's next move will be to sell its agriculture companies.

"Things occur on an opportunistic basis," Rohde said. "We've said that we want to focus our resources on branded and value-added products." The refocus was what led ConAgra to sell 54 per cent of its meatpacking business under ConAgra Meats to Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst and Booth Creek Management.

The rest of ConAgra's stake in the meatpacking business eventually will be sold, Rohde said.

The company is leaving the meatpacking business because it has relatively low profit margins and low return on capital, Rohde added.

Mixing retail and commodity businesses in ConAgra has also confused investors about the company's identity, Rohde said.

Rohde, who took up his position in September 1997, launched Operation Overdrive in May 1999 and laid off 8,450 workers, closed 31 plants and more than 100 storage, administrative and distribution centres and sold 18 non-core businesses.

The company now is being structured around three primary businesses: retail foods, food service and ingredients, Rohde said.