Work on meat plant issues ongoing, minister says

Work is ongoing to resolve issues at the Isle of Man's abattoir after a "challenging couple of years", the environment, food and agriculture minister has said.

The management of Isle of Man Meats faced a vote of no confidence by the Manx National Farmers' Union in August after a series of processing delays and cancellations.

Concerns were raised in Tynwald over recent issues with supply to the hospitality industry.

But Clare Barber MHK said those had been down to planned training but the knock-on effect would be "imminently resolved" and progress was being made.

Production issues, which saw 1.8 tonnes of meat thrown away on one occasion, led to a raft of changes to the board of the island's abattoir last year.

In a statement on the restructure at at the time the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture said the move had aimed to "stabilise operations".

Barber told Tynwald members the plant had recently held a "slow down and train week", which had allowed staff to "enhance skills and build operational confidence".

She said while the initiative had created a "minor impact", as the plant moved out of the period she "would expect those issues to be resolved".

However, she said that the board and executive were "focussed on ongoing maintenance", which meant there was a "residual risk of short notice maintenance related shortages".

When questioned on the 10-week waiting time for processing cattle and the current six-week wait for pigs to be slaughtered she said the "main factor" influencing timeframes was the plant's "ability to sell the processed stock each week".

More "proactive procurement" would be key to managing "seasonal fluctuations across the species" and the board was looking to work more closely with producers to do so, she added.

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