Since this Thursday, October 14, 2021, the administrative closure of the Valenciennes slaughterhouse has impacted around sixty local breeders. The Region speaks of a “major blow” to the sector and of closure “without consultation”.
This Thursday, October 14 morning, about fifty people including breeders, butchers, elected officials gathered in front of the slaughterhouse in the city of Valenciennes to denounce its closure for two months.
Alain Dupont, responsible for the slaughterhouse which employs 23 people, the site would be closed for “administrative reasons” and “a potential source of bacterial contamination”. To which he responds, quoted by France Blue North, that “all the analyzes are negative for bacteria and salmonella”.
And the latter to worry about the situation of breeders who could not, according to him, all last two months by going to Nouvion-en-Thiérache or Fruges, the nearest public slaughterhouses. The administrative closure decided by the North Prefecture arouses the anger and incomprehension of professionals in the sector.
“Malfunctions” and “non-conformities”
At the beginning of the afternoon, the prefecture confirmed its decision by press release …
Slaughterhouse #Valenciennes : update on the temporary suspension of the slaughtering activity.
The prefect of the #North opens the prospect of a meeting with all the interested parties. pic.twitter.com/RqQvVeIwuR
– Prefecture of the Hauts-de-France and North region (@ prefet59) October 14, 2021
“As soon as the corrective actions have been carried out”, the situation will be “reexamined“, notes the prefecture of the North in this press release shared on social networks. “Remedying these malfunctions in some cases requires work” on the installations concerned.
“Trafalgar Coup”
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“The blow dealt to these sectors is important. And when we close a slaughterhouse, well we do not reopen it with a snap of the fingers. However, this closure is done without special consultation with the region. We have been warned by the field and I think that we could have avoided this Trafalgar blow by sitting around the table further upstream, to have a strategy that would make it possible to avoid the closure of such a tool “, reacted Marie-Sophie Lesne, vice-president in charge of agriculture in the Hauts-de-France region, present in Valenciennes.
The prefect of the North proposes a meeting within 15 days between the various actors. Another meeting in the sub-prefecture of Valenciennes was to take place this afternoon.
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