Local butchers order pork products from abroad

DANISH and French pork products were ordered by many local butchers in Cork at the weekend to prevent them having empty shelves yesterday morning.

Joe Leahy, manager of O’Donovan’s on Princes Street in the city centre, said staff were busy on Sunday getting in the alternative supply for customers.

“We also have Danish rashers but we have no sausages,” he said.

“We have three main suppliers for our pork meats and we’re just keeping the fingers crossed that everything will be cleared up in a few days,” said Mr Leahy.

The shop does not usually take pre-Christ-mas orders for hams from customers but would normally get in extra stocks of ham about 10 days before the big day, so the hope is that they will have enough to go around come next week.

At P O’Connell & Sons butcher shop in the Lough, owner Barry O’Connell said a few customers had already phoned to cancel orders for their Christmas hams.

“We would normally have 1,200 to 1,500 hams ordered for Christmas, but we expect to be able to meet the demand. Hopefully it will be the Irish pork we will be supplying but there should be plenty supply from elsewhere if things are still uncertain on Christmas week,” he said.

At the firm’s meat processing outlet in Togher, manager Derek McCarthy said it was worrying that customers in the hospitality sector were unsure about even foreign pork products.

“One restaurant owner told us he was slated by a customer on Sunday for having bacon on the menu, even though it was sourced from France. The main message to consumers is that whatever is on sale now is perfectly safe and we need to keep confidence up,” he said.