Aeron Valley Cheese announces planned closure
Welsh farming unions and politicians have been stunned by news that Aeron Valley Cheese near Lampeter is to close.
NFU Cymru described the move as a “deadly blow” to the Welsh dairy industry and the rural community of south-west Wales.
Welsh Assembly member Mick Bates, Lib Dems Welsh rural affairs spokesman, said farmers were witnessing the demise of milk processing in Wales. He blamed the power of large retailers and warned that the loss of 44 jobs would have serious knock-on effects.
Elin Jones, Plaid Cymru’s spokesman, forecast that the closure would have a devastating impact in an area hit by previous closures, the most recent being the neighbouring Dairygold cheese plant in April 2006.
Deep regret
But Matt Glover, industrial director of Lactalis McLelland, the plant’s owners, said the company had examined and exhausted all possible alternatives to closure.
“Unfortunately, we have had to begin a 30-day consultation process with our staff,” Mr Glover confirmed. “It is with deep regret we informed them they are at risk of redundancy.”
The Aeron Valley plant has the capacity to process up to 100m litres of milk a year into Cheddar, Red Leicester and Double Gloucester cheeses. Milk came from farmers with First Milk contracts.
A co-op spokesman said it would be able to find a new home for the milk, possibly at its Haverfordwest creamery in Pembrokeshire.
Social responsibility
Eifion Hughes, chairman of the Farmers Union of Wales’s milk committee, condemned the way that processing was moving away from milk production fields.
He urged politicians, dairies and supermarkets to demonstrate some social responsibility by ensuring that processing stayed in rural areas.
The union is very concerned that the Dansco mozzarella plant a few miles away at Newcastle Emlyn is also on the market after suppliers complained of delayed payments for their milk
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