Irish facing pig slaughter gap

IRISH PIG producers are warning of a serious shortage of capacity if co-op Dairygold goes ahead with the planned closure of its Galtee slaughter plant at Mitchelstown, Co Cork.

Irish Farmers‘ Association pig chairman, Pat O‘Keeffe, said Ireland already has under-capacity equivalent to about 4000 pigs a week, though he admits this is sometimes eased by the movement of live pigs going for slaughter in Northern Ireland.

With the Galtee plant handling about 9000 pigs a week, its closure would leave Ireland facing a capacity shortfall of over 13,000 pigs a week, he argued.

“We accept that Glanbia plans to increase its capacity to 25,000 a week from its average of 19,400, a rise of just 5600 a week,” said Mr O‘Keeffe.

“But even if these ambitious plans are met before the end of October (when Galtee is due to close) the shortfall will remain at 7700.”

But Dairygold chief executive Jerry Henchy insisted there was no going back on his board‘s decision to quit primary processing.

In a letter to the IFA pig leader he explained that the firm‘s costs were too high.

By outsourcing, Dairygold would be able to buy-in Irish pork for further processing and branding more competitively and grow the business.

A company spokesman also dismissed the IFA‘s claims that there would be insufficient capacity after Dairygold‘s exit.

“Pig numbers in Ireland are back by about 20% compared with 2000,” he said.

“Most plants have operated on four-day weeks at some point during that time. Spare capacity is a luxury we cannot afford.”