Orkney farmers can no longer use Shetland abattoir for livestock that can't go to Dingwall.
To begin, I'd like to emphasise that the purpose of 'Orkney Needs An Abattoir' is to demonstrate the high level of support and encouragement to any and all who might be prepared to pursue the aim of getting a local abattoir service resumed in Orkney.
After such overwhelming and virtually universal support at Dounby Show, on Friday I started gathering more information about possible slaughter options for Orkney livestock. I had a very helpful conversation with Cecil Eunson, chairman of Shetland Livestock Marketing Group which includes Shetland abattoir, but I did learn from him bad news for some Orkney farmers.
Since Orkney abattoir closed in January 2018 some farmers have been sending livestock on the overnight ferry to Shetland to go through their small abattoir. The handling conditions and experienced staff there mean animals that can't use large abattoirs can go through with less stress and producing the best quality meat. This is the system that North Ronaldsay was able to use earlier in the year for the unique seaweed-eating North Ronaldsay sheep. North Ronaldsay mutton is popular with tourists, prized by Gourmet lovers and top London restaurants, and is an important part of the island's economy.
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| The Orcadian : February 22nd 2018 |
Shetland has an Animal Health Scheme (SAHS) to protect the health status of livestock in Shetland and prevent selected diseases entering Shetland from outside. This scheme, so important for Shetland farming, does however mean that livestock from Orkney can no longer travel to Shetland to go through their abattoir. This includes North Ronaldsay sheep. Those who have used Shetland abattoir in the past few months have only recently heard that this is no longer possible, so I've not heard if any alternative possibilities have yet emerged for pigs, goats and those primitive breeds of sheep that can't go through Dingwall.
County Show
On Saturday we went to the County Show, armed with petitions and hoping we could meet as many people as possible to pass on the latest developments in Orkney's abattoir service, and to hear their views and any relevant information they could share with us. We added the news about the loss of the Shetland abattoir to the notes at the top of the petition pages.
The response was even more overwhelming than at Dounby Show. It became clear that many people thought that plans for the abattoir were going well and were expecting an abattoir service to be available again in Orkney later this year. Great shock as we had to pass on news of the actual current situation.
Once again so many people were almost grabbing the petition from us in their eagerness to sign, and passing it round groups of friends and family. It just demonstrated even more clearly that the desire to have an abattoir service is extremely strong and almost universal. With enough people and petition sheets I think most of the 8000 or more present at the show would have signed!
I'd like to thank again all of those who gave up their time at the show to talk to us. Some had very valuable information to share with us and it was fantastic that the County Show attracts so many from outside Orkney. We really were able to learn a great deal from people, including visitors with detailed information about some of the other Scottish Island Abattoirs.
I'm burning the midnight oil going a wide range of information, including documents emailed to me, pages from the Community Owned Assets section of the Highlands and Islands Enterprise website, and the recently enacted Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 that so many up here have worked hard to achieve. I'll do another blog post when I've been able to pull a bit more of this together and more local information has emerged.
Two things I do want to mention now, because they cropped up in a number of conversations with people at both Dounby and County Shows.
While it is very sad that the Butchers' Consortium haven't been able to progress with plans for a new abattoir as we'd all hoped, and as many believed was still progressing, I think it's worth remembering that they have been able to work with Dingwall abattoir to continue to reliably keep supplying us with Orkney reared beef and lamb. That is for the benefit of us all.
The Council supported the old abattoir for 5 years with a level of subsidy that, I think many will agree, was unsustainable and unreasonable in the long term. They ensured our schools and other public services were able to serve the high quality of local meat that Orkney supplies. They have been faced, as has been filling local media this year, with having to make a smaller budget meet ever greater needs.
What is emerging as I've started to go through Scottish Government policy documents is that there are policies and obligations to Scotland's island communities that suggest Government funding may be appropriate to some level.
The public good and public benefits on so many levels of having a local abattoir, for our farmers, food businesses, tourism businesses and more has become increasingly obvious the more I read.
The benefit for Orcadians and visitors alike of being able to enjoy the highest quality of a wide range of meats, with provenance, traceability & welfare second to none.
The public good for those outside Orkney being able to buy such meat, with guaranteed provenance including the hard-won PDO's, from local commercial outlets & eating establishments, or directly from Orkney farmers or an Orkney mail order business, and the financial benefits such business will bring back into Orkney.
Investment in the essential public infrastructure of an appropriately sized abattoir can bring multiplied returns for our economy and community.
Jane Cooper
Abattoir@runbox.com
Thank you so much Jane for taking the lead on this. It is vital that this is rectified as a matter of urgency.
ReplyDeleteApart from Scottish Government funding, European funding might also be available!!!