Australia-Another meat plant closes.

AUSTRALIA-ANOTHER MEAT PLANT CLOSES-

AS UNCERTAIN times continue in the WA meat industry as the Waroona abattoir closes its doors after only eight months of operations.

Operators South West Meat Processors (SWMP) decided to call in the liquidators, creating 42 redundancies at its plant.

The closure comes after WA’s major cattle abattoir Harvey Beef shut its doors for nine days last month and cut 18 jobs this week.

Daniel Delaney, 34, a SWMP 60pc partner with his wife Joanne and another business colleague, said it was heartbreaking to have to close the abattoir and tell staff they would no longer have jobs.

He said a lot of preparation had been put into upgrading the Waroona plant, the former Clover Meats plant that once rivalled Harvey Beef.

SWMP had set up its abattoir to kill sheep and pigs.

It was also capable of daily slaughtering up to 500 cattle.

The small, family-run operation also sourced lamb and pigs direct from farmer suppliers to run the wholesale meat division, Delaney Meats, which will close but is not subject to liquidation.

Mr Delaney blamed lack of industry support for the closure and said that while the industry said it needed more processors, no one would support them.

"It was lack of stock and the world market has not helped," he said.

Service kill contracts had backed off 50pc and the value of skins had plummeted due to a slowdown in the global economy.

"The price of skins fell from $7.50 to $3 overnight," Mr Delaney said.