Killing may resume at Auckland works

Press, 13 October 1983, Page 14

Killing may resume at Auckland works

PA Auckland Mutton and lamb killing could resume next month at R. and W. Hellaby’s Shortland freezing works in Auckland, 14 months after the chains were stopped and 415 workers lost their jobs. A company spokesman, Mr Owen Cook, has confirmed that a feasibility study on the reopening of one chain was well advanced and a decision was expected by the end of the week. If the chain restarts, it

could create jobs for up to 160 freezing workers. A huge and unpredicted surge in sheep numbers is given as the reason lamb and mutton killing at the Shortland works might have become economic again. The New Zealand lamb kill for 1982-83 is expected to be 34.5 million — 9.7 million or 39 per cent higher than four years ago. When the company announced in April last year that it would close the works’ two mutton and

lamb chains, it blamed declining stock numbers and losses incurred at the works. The rapid swing to horticulture in South Auckland was reducing the pool of animals.

The high level of Govern-ment-guaranteed minimum prices to farmers for lamb and mutton caused the sudden boost in sheep population, Mr Cook said.

“It is encouraging farmers to keep producing lambs even though we can’t sell them.”