Moy Park plant to halt slaughter until September
The factory is understood to process up to 300,000 birds a week.
Northern Ireland's largest poultry processor has announced it will “pause” live bird processing at its Co Antrim factory until September.
Moy Park cited the cost and accessibility of raw materials, high energy costs, and labour shortages as reasons why it had made the decision to suspend the slaughter of birds at its Ballymena plant.
The factory is understood to process up to 300,000 birds a week.
Moy Park is Northern Ireland’s biggest employer with the company’s latest filed accounts for 2020 reporting sales of £1.49bn.
Ulster Farmers’ Union deputy president William Irvine said he was “deeply concerned” about the news.
UFU deputy president William Irvine said: “Our members are extremely disappointed and worried about Moy Park pulling back on production here. It is the second time this has happened in less than three years and will create ongoing income pressures.
“Poultry producers have been hit hard in recent times and they’ve been exhausting every avenue to sustain their family farm businesses.
“Moy Park has said that they aim to get the slaughtering of live birds in the Ballymena site going again in September when a major contract with Sainsbury’s will begin, but in the meantime, we will be liaising closely with Moy Park to ensure this is managed with minimal impact.
“It’s important that consumers understand that the increasing input costs to produce food is going to affect the cost of food for them. Neither farmers or processors can produce food, meeting extra production costs, without receiving a fair return from the marketplace. Therefore, it’s going to have a rippling affect down the food chain.”
A spokesperson for Moy Park said the firm would work closely with farmers to manage the "temporary reduction" in poultry processed at the site.
“As we respond to customer growth and labour market challenges, we are proposing to move team members from the live bird processing line to our further processing lines, enabling us to increase production at Ballymena," he said.
“No jobs will be impacted by these changes, however, we are planning to temporarily pause live bird processing at Ballymena as we focus on seasonal and retail products.
“The live processing line will restart again in September."
Workers affected by this shutdown have been redeployed within other areas of the business.
However, union leaders warned more needed to be done to improve conditions for staff.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “Moy Park management need to recognise that Brexit has completely changed the labour market in Northern Ireland. They cannot continue to offer low pay and poor working conditions and rely on overseas recruitment to fill the gaps resulting from high staff turnover.
“This is a hugely successful company, but instead of amassing more and more profits for shareholders, management needs to increase pay and deliver real improvements to terms and conditions to avoid a damaging staffing crisis, which will hugely impair their productive capacity.”
