It appears that a dispute over the price of rendering fallen animals between rendering plants and knackeries is set to escalate from next week.
Sources in the knackery sector have told Agriland that rendering plants in the Republic of Ireland will stop accepting material from knackeries for rendering from Monday (December 4).
It is claimed that this is due to the knackeries’ inability to pay the cost of rendering, which saw an increase a number of months ago.
It is unclear at that this time if the knackeries will cease collecting fallen animals from farms as a result of this dispute.
It is understood that the Animal Collectors’ Association (ACA) has sought a meeting with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with a view to resolving the issue, with the department yet to confirm a meeting.
Some knackeries in the Republic of Ireland send material from fallen animals to a rendering plant in Northern Ireland.
However, this is not seen as a workable solution to the issue for the knackery sector in general in Ireland, due to insufficient capacity at the northern rendering plant, and the cost of haulage for knackeries located in the south of the country.
Knackeries are said to feel that their incomes are effectively capped due to a limit on prices that can realistically be charged to farmers for animal collection.
In mid-October, the ACA said that the cost of rendering from some of the rendering plants on the island of Ireland was set to increase “significantly”.
A spokesperson from the ACA said at the time that the “cost of rendering is doubling for some knackeries” and that it has “gone up 50% for others”.
There are four rendering plants on the island of Ireland, with the three in the Republic being Waterford Proteins, Co. Waterford; Dublin Products, Co. Wicklow; and College Proteins, Nobber, Co. Meath.
There are a total of 38 knackeries in the Republic of Ireland that supply rendering plants and collect waste from factories.
They are required to deliver category 1 waste to the rendering plants, while the farmers pay for the service of collection.
The knackeries must then pay the rendering plants for receiving the waste.