Calls for Galtee product boycott as plant closes

FORMER employees and suppliers of Galtee Meats have called on supermarket groups to boycott Galtee products following the closure of the once-thriving plant in Mitchelstown.

A protest was held outside the gates of Galtee yesterday to mark the closure of the bacon processing factory which employed 450 staff just over two years ago, but was down to 55 by this week.

The protest was organised by the Save Galtee Action Group, who have severely criticised management of Dairygold which owns Galtee as well as other food production businesses in Mitchelstown and elsewhere.

“The closure of the Galtee meat plant along with other closures and outsourcing of Dairygold production represents one of the greatest scandals in the recent history of the Irish food industry, bringing with it a trail of destruction,” said the group yesterday in a statement.

Campaigner Tony Lewis said that there was a €16 million incentive for management to sell off the business. “It was in 2005 that they started to cut back and to dismantle what was the best slaughtering plant here in the country, and one of only a couple which had a USDA licence to export.”

Much of Galtee’s core production and processing operation has been outsourced to other parts of the country and to locations in Scotland and Wales.

Accusing the company of “selling out” the Irish pig producers and “deceiving consumers” by trading on the brand as Irish, the protesters have written to all of the leading multiple stores in the country, “asking them to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Irish worker and producer on this issue. And to ensure that when the Irish consumer wants to buy Irish when he or she picks up an Irish brand, it is 100% Irish”.

Local Fianna Fáil TD Ned O’Keeffe, Fine Gael councillor Aileen Pine and Sinn Féin’s Tim ‘The Rancher’ White were also present.

Mr O’Keeffe, also a pig farmer, said that Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin had been “walked into” a press conference some years ago by Dairygold, at which announcements were made regarding future investment.

“Dairygold have a habit of flying kites and this was a kite-flying job,” he said.

Galtee Meats was formed in 1967 as part of the Dairygold co-op group.