Wellington, July 30 NZPA - Silver Fern Farms is closing a plant in Britain that processed and packed frozen products from this country, amid a continuing decline in frozen exports.

Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper said the decline in frozen exports was due to lower numbers of stock available for slaughter and a focus on achieving a best practice chilled supply chain model.

That had resulted in significantly reduced volumes available for processing through the Brooks of Norwich operation, which Silver Fern had taken full ownership of in 1998 when significant volumes of frozen carcasses and cuts were being sent to Britain for further processing.

Mr Cooper today said almost all lamb carcasses were now being further processed in New Zealand at integrated slaughter and processing sites.

Demand for chilled products had increased and in recent years major British retailers had consolidated the processing and packing of chilled meat with a small number of large multi-species operators.

"We continue to observe a major shift in consumption from frozen to chilled product as a result of changing lifestyles and increasing consumer demand for fresh, healthy and convenient added-value products," Mr Cooper said.

Britain was leading that trend, with chilled lamb exports from this country growing by 20 percent, with Silver Ferns' chilled growth significantly higher than that.

Silver Fern was partnering with major British retailers to support their focus on chilled products and that had a flow-on impact to its frozen volumes.

The closure of Brooks, which affected 64 employees, came two years after Silver Fern sold the plant. It had been operating under a lease arrangement since then.

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