Moy Park, which is owned by Pilgrim’s Pride, has announced the temporary suspension of production activities at its plant located in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, until January next year.

       The move is said to be in response to the challenging market conditions for the poultry segment.

       Currently, 1,700 people are employed at the Ballymena plant.

       Moy Park said that the decision would not lead to any job losses, as employees will be placed at its other facilities, but the employees unio argue that this could ‘result in up to 400 job losses’.

       Ulster Farmers’ unio deputy president, David Brown said: “Moy Park’s announcement is yet another blow to Northern Ireland poultry producers. Many are already facing massive cash flow pressures within their businesses following the recent amendment to RHI tariffs and this news is likely to mean a further income hit.

       “Moy Park is Northern Ireland’s largest employer and made profits of over ￡72m in 2017. While they have said the decision is temporary, producers are very disappointed that the company cannot stand by them during this period of weaker demand.

       “In recent years, retailers have been reluctant to pass on inflationary rises and the cost of the living wage to consumers and there is continuous pressure for the supply chain to reduce its costs.”

       Moy Park currently operates 12 processing and manufacturing units, which are located in Northern Ireland, England, France and the Netherlands, that process more than 280 million birds per annum and are engaged in the production of 200,000t of prepared foods per year.

       Its product portfolio includes ready-to-eat meals, pre-cooked meals, frozen foods, beef, pork, vegetarian foods, desserts and fresh and added-value poultry products that are distributed to restaurant chains and retailers in the UK and Continental Europe.

       In September 2017, US-based food company Pilgrim’s Pride acquired poultry and prepared foods supplier Moy Park from Brazilian meat processing company JBS for approximately $1.3bn.

       The decision to acquire Moy Park was unanimously approved by a special committee of Pilgrim’s board of directors.