Following the closure of Orkney Meat Limited in 2012, the abattoir had been leased and operated on a reduced basis by a group of local butchers known as “Orkney Meat Processors Ltd” (OMLP).

Despite the £1m invested by the council in the last five years, they have said that the current facility is too large for its use and that significant reinvestment would be required.

Until Thursday, the plant had been slaughtering in the region of 12 to 15 cattle a week to meet local demand, along with a similar number of sheep and a smaller number of pigs. Alternative measures are currently being put in place to transport these cattle to Dingwall, where they will be slaughtered before the carcases are returned to Orkney.

Orkney MSP Liam MacArthur said: “For a community and an economy, such as Orkney, that relies so heavily on livestock farming it is inconceivable that we don’t have an abattoir facility here. I think the speed with which the decision was taken to close the doors on the arrangement took a lot of people by surprise.”

This sentiment was shared by farmers, with the general consensus being that despite being aware of the threat of closure the suddenness of the decision is unacceptable.

With no facility now in place on the islands to carry out a casualty kill, animal welfare may be compromised.

Threat

There is now also a threat to the Orkney beef and lamb Protected Destination of Origin (PDO) product.

MSP MacArthur said: “The understanding was the local kill dimension was a requirement of the designation, but it will need to be looked at. A lot of people worked very hard to get those designations put in place and it is one of the ways in which we have turned the perceived disadvantage of being an island into an advantage.”