THE GOVERNMENT has apologised to Jersey’s pig farmers after equipment failures at the island’s abattoir caused weeks of disruption, costing producers thousands of pounds and leaving local sausages and chops in short supply.
The abattoir at La Collette was closed for eight weeks after a key machine used to remove hair from pig carcasses broke and had to be sent to Germany for repairs.
Farmers said that even after the equipment returned, further issues forced repeated shutdowns.
Jeremy Hughes of Panigot Farm, who had to take to social media to apologise to customers for the disruption, commented: “There seems to be a lack of consistency at the abattoir at the moment. The impact is that I usually sell meat to the public and restaurants but I cannot do that at the moment, leaving them to buy imported meat.”
Meanwhile, Kate Hackett, of Brooklands Farm in St Brelade, said her team had lost the “equivalent of four pigs, which were worth £2,600 as a deadweight and at least triple that amount as produce ready for the customer”.
In a statement, the Infrastructure and Environment Department, which has responsibility for the facility, said: “We apologise for the recent disruption caused by equipment issues at the abattoir, particularly in our pig processing operations.
“There were issues with some new pig processing equipment which was sent back to the manufacturer to adjust, as well as the hanging rail which resulted in us being unable to process four cattle in one week. We resolved this quickly and those cattle were processed the following week.
“Unfortunately, despite our attempts to rectify the pig processing equipment problems, this took longer to resolve and resulted in us being unable to process some pigs.
“These issues have now been resolved, and normal processing will resume next week. We thank our farming community for their patience during this time.”
