Industry shake-up puts South Island butchers on the chopping block

The South Island's pork industry is set to have what's being labelled by butchers as the 'industry's biggest shake up'.

All pork-selling South Island butchers, supermarkets and home-kill providers have been told as of next week, they are to discard all of their own by-product.

It's a costly move they say could cut jobs, force businesses to close and send hundreds of tonnes of animal by-products into landfills. 

John Bryant's Pork, Bacon and Ham 'Producer of the Decade award' is a testament to the quality pork products his family's butchery makes. 

"Pork is a very big part of our business," says John Bryant, of Ellesmere Butchery.

But that award-winning title could be the last one they get. That's because the South Island's only agricultural waste product recycler, Wallace Group, will no longer take any waste from butchers or supermarkets that process pork.

"Wallace Group now, as of the end of next week, they will no longer pick up any pork from butchers and supermarkets South Island wide, and also that if we have pork on site they will now longer pick up our beef lamb or venison byproduct either," says butchery owner and representative of the Collective Butcher group, Martyn Knight.

At least 10,000 pigs are slaughtered for the dinner plate in New Zealand each week. 

Up until now, all by-products in the South Island have been collected at no cost. But with Wallace Group no longer at the table, an estimated 200 tonnes will be heading to the landfill every week.

It's a cost businesses say they can't afford, potentially putting jobs and butcheries on the chopping block.

"If we have no pork products on site, nearly every butchery or supermarket in the South Island stands to lose 40 percent of their income," says Knight.

"A huge percentage of our products are pork so obviously we couldn't stop doing that and have a viable business, says Bryant. 

A collective group of butcheries had a closed meeting with Wallace Group representatives on Saturday morning to discuss this letter sent out two days ago. 

Wallace Group declined to speak with Newshub, but in the letter they say their biggest Indonesian offshore client has a zero-tolerance to pork material and Wallace Group doesn't have the facilities to separate it out. 

Butchers are now calling on the Commerce Commission and the Government to investigate the matter. 

Newshub.