News Pigs
Klöckner seeks solution for pig congestion
Germany is struggling with an increasing pig congestion at the slaughterhouses. German agriculture minister Julia Klöckner has reportedly sought help from fellow minister Hubertus Heil to find a solution.
Klöckner has written to her colleague Minister of Labor, Hubertus Heil, for help in solving the large backlog of pig slaughter. That reports Agraheute. The Minister of Agriculture expects that a temporary extension of working hours can contribute to eliminating the backlog. As far as is known, Heil has not yet responded.
Short term solution
Klöckner sees opportunities in a different distribution of working hours in the slaughterhouses. She emphasizes that these are short-term solutions. For this reason, she has enlisted the help of the Minister of Labor. Temporarily extending working hours and tolerating Sunday work could help.
The slaughter backlog is mainly caused by the limited activities at the Tönnies locations in Rheda and Sögel and at Vion in Emstek at the beginning of this summer. Every week, about 123.000 pigs were slaughtered less than normal. Various factors mean that the German slaughter capacity is still not optimal. If nothing is done, the minister expects a slaughter backlog of more than one million animals by the end of the year. This is accompanied by various welfare risks for the animals.
No workers in the meat industry
At the beginning of October, German industry associations called on politicians to take measures to support the pig supply chain. At that time, the African swine fever (ASF) had just emerged in Germany, while the chain had been disrupted for some time by corona infections among slaughter staff. The ISN interest group already asked for special permits to slaughter on Sundays and public holidays and argued for an extension of working hours.
In the meantime, ISN has indicated that the slaughter capacity has not yet been increased because there are insufficient staff available. It is said that Sunday permits are already being prepared, but nothing has yet been seen of this either. Given the current situation regarding the corona crisis and the ASF outbreaks, it remains to be seen whether the German pig slaughters have been updated in time.
Jorine Cosse
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