The former slaughterhouse director of Vopnafjörður does not want to admit defeat by the closure of the plant, but rather he wants to apply for a license and run his own slaughterhouse and meat processing business from the autumn, reports Bændathe newspaper.
With the closure of the Vopnafjörður slaughterhouse, farmers in the entire eastern half of the country will no longer have access to a slaughterhouse. Sheep and livestock have to be driven hundreds of kilometers to Húsavík or Selfoss.
Regional market license
Skúli Þórðarson, a sheep farmer on Refstaðir in Vopnafjörður, has managed the local slaughter cooperative since 1989. After closing the facility, which was no longer profitable because it was in the red, he is now making plans for the future.
“For now, I’ll continue on my farm with 400 sheep and a few horses,” says Skúli. “But I also want to do something else at the same time. I want to apply for a license for a small slaughterhouse with meat processing. If I get the license, I want to slaughter 500 to 600 sheep from Vopnafjörður in the fall, and that is primarily intended for the regional market.” Only then can the sale be expanded, and more animals in the coming years Butcher. “I thought I could convert the old cowshed, which hasn’t been used for five years, and have already started gutting it and setting up a slaughter room there.”
Transport routes bad for animal welfare
The slaughterhouse in Höfn in Hornafjörður was closed in the summer of 2019 after the meat company Norðlenska terminated all lease agreements with the slaughter company Búi in Höfn, which held around 70% of the shares in the slaughterhouse. The reason given was that prices in Höfn were around 50% higher than in the Norðlenska slaughterhouse in Húsavík.
However, the former Búi chairman does not believe in a new slaughterhouse in Höfn; after all, the entire inventory has been sold and the building is being used for other purposes. Búi was dissolved in 2021.
“In my opinion, the closure of the slaughterhouse in Höfn was very bad,” says Eiríkur Egilsson from Seljavellir, “especially in terms of the long transport routes and animal welfare. Personally, I don’t think it’s good that there is more concentration of slaughterhouses and I think it’s right that the current slaughterhouses are competing for business with farmers.”
Two women are planning a mini slaughterhouse
But in Hornafjörður there are certainly considerations about opening a small slaughterhouse, even if the general conditions are anything but rosy. The two farmers Lovísa R. Bjarnadóttur and Anna Sigurbjörg Sævarsdóttir explain that the Austur-Skaftafellssýslu slaughter association only came into being after the farm in Höfn was closed.
“This is a group of people with a common vision who want to build a small service slaughterhouse,” the two explain. “We want to offer farmers better services by extending the slaughter season so that fresh meat can be offered more often. You would only slaughter a small amount at a time to reduce stress and the facility would then be better for the animals. A direct sale for the residents of the region would be an option, both to companies and to private individuals. We would emphasize slaughtering cattle, goats, pigs, sheep and horses.”
They had purchased furnishings and equipment from the slaughterhouse in Höfn, then they applied to the municipality for land to build a new slaughterhouse. It took a very long time, but in the end it went through.
No money for animal welfare
The only thing missing is money. Although the path of the two farmers – proximity, craftsmanship, animal welfare – represents a kind of innovation, the result – meat – is already known, which is why there was no money from innovation funds. A cooperation with the Seglbúðir artisan slaughterhouse also came to nothing after the house had to close because the fees for meat inspection had been massively increased.
“Now it looks like it’s 400 kilometers or more from Höfn to the next slaughterhouse after Vopnafjörður closes: Húsavík or Selfoss. It was not least these long distances for the animals that led to the idea gaining momentum. The construction of a slaughterhouse in Höfn is now on hold because it is difficult to get money and loans are expensive. The increase in fees by the Ministry of Agriculture for small slaughterhouses affects us directly and makes matters worse, so our business plan has changed completely last year,” say Lovísa and Anna.
Paving the way for monopoly
The revised one passed by Parliament last week Agricultural Products Law is likely to slow down initiatives like this even further. The law, passed with 26 votes to 19, is seen by critics as paving the way for a monopoly in the agricultural sector, which could result in a single meat factory for the entire island and rising prices for consumers. It allows the large meat companies to enter into competition agreements that were previously illegal. The competition authority had spoken out against the amendment several times, but had not been heard.
At the same time, the big corporations are also the ones largest importers for foreign food and meat products and are therefore the farmers’ biggest competitors.
2024-03-29 05:18:00
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