Cookstown is a bustling market town located at the edge of the Sperrin Mountains in the eastern end of Co Tyrone.

When the Irish Farmers Journal called into traders in the town during August, there was a common consensus that without farming and food processing, there would be no reason for the town to exist.

Cookstown is surrounded by high-quality farmland that is mainly dedicated to livestock, with dairying, beef and sheepmeat production all featuring. It is also home to Karro, the largest pigmeat processing facility in Ireland or Britain. It sources pigs from across the island of Ireland and is the biggest single customer for the estimated 360,000 pigs imported into Northern Ireland from the Republic last year.

As well as pig processing, Cookstown is also home to the Dale Farm dairy processing business at Dunman, about three miles from the town centre. This site is one of the largest cheese processors in Northern Ireland while 10 miles in the other direction the largest two beef and sheep processors, ABP and Dawn Meats, have factories next door to each other in Dungannon. Moy Park also has one of Europe’s most modern poultry processing factories in Dungannon. Farming and processing dominate the economy of Cookstown and the surrounding area.

Retail

Being located less than a mile from the town centre, Karro employees are major spenders in the Cookstown retail sector, which is still dominated by independent traders in clothes, footwear, food and electrical goods, unlike many other towns. Cookstown traders seem to have achieved the difficult balance between being sufficiently modern to compete with online and the major chains while holding traditional values of service and personality that retains customers and repeat business.

Main street, Cookstown Co Tyrone

A further feature of these businesses is that they are in the same ownership for several generations. Thompson’s shoes has been trading on the same site since 1958 while Tom Morrow’s outfitters have been trading since 1968.

Topping all these is Sheehy’s book shop, newsagent and stationers which has been trading in the same family for 100 years at this stage.

Independent butchers have been squeezed in many towns by the major supermarkets but in Cookstown the Irish Farmers Journal visited four butchers – McMahons, Knipes, McAtamneys and Huttons. While there were differences in the offerings, the common theme from all the butchers was knowing their customers and giving them what they want. “There is no point in us cutting up beef, putting it on display and assume customers will buy it,” was the general comment and it is noticeable that there is a strong delicatessen and ready element to all of the butchers visited.

Service providers

Parkland’s vets, one of Northern Ireland’s largest practices, has a busy branch in Cookstown and like all modern veterinary practices has developed a significant small animal side to the business in addition to the more traditional farm animal practice.

As relatively little farmland is sold, Cookstown solicitors are less linked with farming but on the other hand there is a consistent demand from farmers for accountancy services in the town.