Chicken farmers want province to act faster to reopen Berwick plant

The group representing Nova Scotia's chicken farmers says the two-week closure of the province's only federal processing plant is a concern for farmers and consumers, and it's urging the province to reopen it sooner.

The Nova Scotia Health Authority announced Friday that Eden Valley Poultry in Berwick would be shut down for 14 days after six cases of COVID-19 were confirmed among the first test results among the plant’s 430 employees.

Chicken Farmers of Nova Scotia wants the province to speed up testing and consider all options that will protect public health and make the shutdown as short as possible.

“It's hard for us to agree that a 14-day shutdown is necessary when we don't know how widespread the problem is,” chair Thom Oulton said in a news release Saturday.

“We are very disappointed that the the plant's employees were all tested on Wednesday and 48 hours later the government made its announcement with 300 tests still outstanding. These are essential workers who process our food and processing those tests should be a priority.”

Oulton said that while the the group agrees that protecting people's health is the top priority, the security of the food supply is also important to human health.

“Every day the plant is down has the potential to put our local food supply at risk," he said. "It is critical to keep this shutdown as short as possible.”.

The closest alternative plants are in New Brunswick for chicken and Quebec for turkey, but those plants have their own production schedules and moving production slated for Eden Valley may not be possible, Oulton said.

He said the industry wants to see the government working with the plant to look at all available options, including speeding up testing to clear some employees to go back to work faster.

“Operating at reduced capacity still presents challenges, but it creates less risk to our industry and our food supply,” he said.