Bannside Foods submits plan to build pork processing plant

Bannside Foods has submitted a plan to build a new pork processing plant in Ballymoney, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

The planning proposal was submitted to Causeway Coast and Glens Council.

The $105m (£75m) pork processing plant will be built at Lovell and Christmas bacon factory, which was destroyed by a fire in 1998.

If approved, the new facility will be used for processing cull sows.

Farmers currently have to export cull sows to the UK, Republic of Ireland and Europe, as there is no facility in Northern Ireland for this process.

Project architect Johann Muldoon was quoted by BBC as saying: “It will future-proof an industry that has been hard hit in the last number of years plus any new jobs should be welcomed.

“One of the key concerns with Brexit was the access to migrant labour – this plant will see changes to the nature of that and will link into apprenticeships and training in the tech side of the business, but there will be the other side of things that are less tech-savvy.

“There’ll be 350 to 400 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect jobs – it’s certainly a big project.”

Ulster Farmer’s Union Pork and Bacon Committee chair Glenn Cuddy said: “It’ll mean more competition in the market for pigs.

“There’s always problems moving sows – our sows usually have to go across the water into the mainland, or else to the Republic, and with borders and all there’s always problems, so it’s welcome news that there might be a plant that could do cull sows in the future.”

The proposal for the new pork processing facility is currently under a 12-week public consultation process.