Abattoir opens (From Western Telegraph)

Abattoir opens

Pembrokeshire's new £750,000 abattoir, the first to operate in the county for 13 years, is open for business.

For more than a decade, cattle, sheep and pigs produced in Pembrokeshire have been transported hundreds of miles to abattoirs because the county had no slaughterhouse.

The opening of the new farmer-owned abattoir at the Withybush Park Industrial Estate, Haverfordwest, on Monday marked the realisation of a vision pioneered by a group of local businessmen two years ago.

Led by Haverfordwest osteopath Richard Blacklaw-Jones and brothers, John and Emrys Davies, of the Welsh Hook Meat Company, Haverfordwest, the Pembrokeshire Meat Company won the confidence of farmers, butchers and wholesalers.

They invested money in the project and became shareholders. The proposal also attracted a £240,000 European Union grant.

After months of protracted planning negotiations, that vision has been realised this week. "There has been an immense amount of work involved in getting planning permission and getting it built, but it is very satisfying to now see it operating,'' admitted John Davies, who is chairman of the Pembrokeshire Meat Company.

"The shareholders have been extremely supportive. They have paid their money and not asked a single question, such has been their confidence in this abattoir.''

The facility, licenced to slaughter both conventional and organic livestock, will give butchers and wholesalers an added advantage of marketing locally reared beef, lamb and pork as both produced and slaughtered in Pembrokeshire.

The abattoir has the capacity to slaughter 8,500 cattle annually or an equivalent of 51,000 sheep. Pigs will also be slaughtered there and there are plans to introduce a line for dairy bull calves. "We are giving farmers the opportunity of bringing unwanted calves here, possibly once or twice a week, instead of disposing of them themselves,'' said John Davies.

He stressed that it was not, as rumoured, solely intended for organic livestock. "It is not an organic slaughterhouse, our main function is to serve the conventional market. There is a system in place whereby organic livestock are the first to be slaughtered daily followed by conventional stock.''

It will dramatically reduce to the cost of slaughtering locally-produced stock, as Mr Davies explained. "It is costing us (Welsh Hook Meat) £30 a head to send cattle to Cinderford abattoir. We and other users will no longer have to bear that cost.''

The abattoir has a European Union export licence which means that meat processed there can be sold overseas.

A major financial backer is the Welsh Hook Meat Company which won a coveted silver award at the recent True Taste of Wales Food and Drink Awards. It picked up the award in the 'originally organic' category for medium and large companies.

The abattoir has created seven new jobs.

The workforce at the Welsh Hook Meat Company may also be increased as it presses ahead with plans to expand its business by 20% as a result of the new slaughtering facilities.