Work on new abattoir could start in January (From Western Telegraph)

Work on new abattoir could start in January

CONSTRUCTION WORK on a new abattoir serving Pembrokeshire meat producers could begin as early as January.

The Pembrokeshire Meat Company, a business set up by farmers and other businessmen, has been offered a plot of land in Haverfordwest by Pembrokeshire County Council.

A third of the project cost has been pledged by the business and agriculture sector and further funding from the Welsh Development Agencys processing and marketing scheme looks likely.

Haverfordwest osteopath Richard Blacklaw-Jones, a driving force behind the project, is optimistic it could be operating by next spring.

Provided all goes according to plan and we can jump through the necessary hoops, we will be breaking ground by January," he says. He declined to confirm where the slaughterhouse would be built or how much the site would cost.

Designs are being drawn up and the process of securing planning permission has started.

Investors will be offered either a return on their cash outlay or a preferential slaughter price.

The abattoir would be accredited to slaughter organic meat, but would not be restricted to this sector. We think we will be operating about 50/50 for the organic and conventional markets," said Richard Blacklaw Jones. It is more than a decade since Pembrokeshire lost its slaughterhouse at Haverfordwest because it was too costly to bring it up to European standards.

Mr Blacklaw-Jones says a new facility is long overdue. Our agriculture industry is stuck between producing high quality food but not being able to get it to the market place," he said.

There would no reason, he said, why farmers markets like the one at Haverfordwest could not operate successfully in towns like Tenby, St Davids and Cardigan.

BUTCHERS and livestock producers are forced to travel to abattoirs in North Wales or further afield.

The slaughterhouses at Llanelli and Cardigan are now concentrating on the Over-Thirty-Months and Welfare Schemes and the facility at Llanwnen has closed.

Ray Hughes, of the Yerbeston Gate Farm Shop, near Cresselly, said it can cost £500 to transport his Welsh Black cattle to North Wales. People dont realise the seriousness of the situation," he said.

He insists that his Welsh Blacks go through the production line separately to retain identity and traceability, but the bigger abattoirs are reluctant to stop the line.

Mr Hughes sells one-and-a-half beef carcasses and up to 30 lambs a week. A local abattoir would be ideal for businesses like his.