‘One-off’ chance to reopen town abattoir

3:02pm Wednesday 13th August 2008

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A rare opportunity for livestock businesses to move up the supply chain and address the food miles issue is half-way to becoming reality.

Bishop's Castle Abattoir Project - led by a steering group of farmers and industry associates - has the ambition of purchasing and re-opening Bishop's Castle abattoir, which closed last winter. Uniquely, the abattoir is the only one in the county which is licensed to handle cattle, sheep and pigs and is also licensed to handle organic products.

Steering group member, Trevor Sheard of Balfours explains: "This really is a one-off chance - at present the abattoir could reopen without major hurdles but that won't be the case forever. While we already have more than £200,000 committed, the initial target to progress this project is double this figure, so we need investors and we need them now.

"Livestock producers know to their cost there is still a massive difference between the prices real-ised for produce leaving the farm and the price paid by the consumer. This is due to the many different organisations involved in the supply chain. Livestock enterprises can only increase their share of these margins by moving up in the supply chain."

Some individual farm businesses, through farm shops and farmers' markets, have enjoyed individual success, but curbing the supply chain has been difficult to achieve on any large scale. Furthermore there are many farmers who wish to do the job of farming and leave the processing and marketing to experts in their field - this project meets that call.

The BCAP project is the first major initiative in Shropshire aimed at adding value to the county's livestock through its own abattoir. It has already passed the steering group's feasibility study which concluded that the abattoir has the potential to run as a profitable business.