Moy Park is temporarily halting its live bird processing operations at its poultry plant in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to place more focus on further processing activities.
In a statement emailed to WATT Global Media, a spokesperson for Moy Park said: ““As we respond to customer growth and labor 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.
“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. We will be working closely with our farming partners throughout the process to manage this temporary reduction in poultry requirement.”
The Ballymena plant also experienced a partial closure in 2019.
Ulster Farmers Union responds
The Ulster Farmers Union expressed concerns about the decision involving the plant, but vowed to be communicating with Moy Park about the matter.
“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,” said the organization’s deputy president, William Irvine.
“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.
Moy Park is the eighth largest poultry producer in Europe and the second largest in the United Kingdom. During the past year, the company, owned by Pilgrim’s Pride, slaughtered 312 million broilers during the past year.
