News Pigs
Weather alarm also code red for slaughter capacity?
The bad weather conditions meant that the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) did not send supervisors on the road. This meant that slaughterhouses could not slaughter on Monday morning because there were no inspectors present.
The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) set code red for the whole of the Netherlands on Sunday afternoon (14 February). Code red was in principle from 05:00 to 12:00.
The NVWA decided not to send inspectors out because of the slippery road. As a result, slaughterhouses were unable to slaughter on Monday morning. To compensate for the loss of slaughter capacity, slaughterhouses were able to continue longer on Monday, the NVWA reports. "In close consultation with the companies, a phased start was made and, where possible, space was also given to continue for longer. In most cases, this was successful".
Surprise and incomprehension
The NVWA's decision not to send supervisors on the road often led to surprise and incomprehension in the sector. Slaughterhouses and transporters did not see the decision coming. According to a number of livestock transporters, such a decision has never been taken before. According to the NVWA, this is because code red has not been set during working days for a long time.
Slaughter capacity lost
In the west and south, the weather alarm was lifted earlier, later in the middle of the Netherlands, and at 13:00, code red was also ended in the northeast of the country. This enabled a number of slaughterhouses to resume activities before noon. Nevertheless, despite the room to slaughter for longer, there are abattoirs that suffer from a loss of capacity. At Westfort, the capacity loss is estimated at one third.
Unfavorable in already difficult time
The NVWA's decision not to allow supervisors to take to the road is of course never a favorable decision for the sector, but the decision hits all the harder in the difficult period that the sector is already experiencing. Due to the corona crisis and African swine fever (ASF) in Germany, the sector has been struggling with an oversupply of pigs for some time.
Chanti Oussoren
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