Danish Crown stops evening slaughtering shift at Ringsted facility

Meat processing company Danish Crown has stopped evening shifts at its slaughterhouse in Ringsted, Denmark, due to decline in the supply of pigs for slaughter.

As a result of this move, approximately 20 permanent employees will be losing their jobs, in addition to nearly 100 employees whose fixed-term employment contracts will expire shortly.

Danish Crown Pork production vice-president Per Laursen said: “This is a very unfortunate situation.

"We saw a stabilisation in the supply of pigs for slaughter throughout 2015, but since the start of the year, there has been a fall of about 3% compared to last year. Therefore, it’s now necessary to adapt capacity accordingly.”

The slaughtering process at Ringsted will be reduced from 46,000 to 34,000 pigs a week, due to the shortfall of pigs on Zealand to fill the slaughterhouse.

The company transports approximately 10,000 pigs a week across the Great Belt, resulting in additional transport costs.

It is reported that the 100 employees and more who work in the evening with deboning, packaging and production for Danish Crown’s customers in Asia will not be affected by the adjustment.