Another sign that over capacity is stll rife in the meat industry, as Bernard Matthews put off staff at its Waipukurau processing plant.
The industrys figures produced by Meat and Wool NZ that there would be an increased kill this year, appear unreliable.
Lamb kill numbers nationally are down 5.4% to date, and SFF report that it is unlikely any increase will be achieved.
They also say that UK's lamb production is down 16%, with Ireland and Spain also reporting falls, four months into 2010.
Scarcity of lamb product has kept prices firm however, but this will be little comfort for meatworkers.
About 175 Hawke's Bay meat workers are expected to lose their jobs after a second redundancies announcement in the industry this week. Bernard Matthews' Waipukurau plant said the workers were to be laid off because of serious stock shortages.
Managing director Willem Sandberg told Hawke's Bay Today the "seasonal layoffs" were the highest he had heard of during his 10 years with the company. "It's a sad thing to do to tell that many staff they haven't got jobs but when there's nothing to process we don't have any choice," he said.
"There are usually seasonal layoffs in this industry, but nothing like this. Usually we have enough to process and keep the day shift going all year but that's just not going to happen.
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