SFF lamb-cut workers were told on Friday by management that options were being considered, including the closure of the lamb-cut department at Silverstream and moving some work to its Finegand plant near Balclutha.
Silver Fern chief executive Keith Cooper yesterday confirmed management spoke to staff on Friday, outlining the effects of the decline in lamb kill, and added Chinese customers were requiring ''less sophisticated'' types of lamb-cut processing.
''We're looking at options for consolidation of processing at Silverstream and [to] Finegand,'' Mr Cooper said.
While options could include job growth for Finegand, Mr Cooper conceded that could come at the expense of Silverstream jobs.
''Yes. There's the potential for losses at Silverstream,'' he said.
Nationally, the lamb kill was down 8.5%, he said.
That equated to about 1.8 million fewer lambs from a total of about 20 million last year. Of that, the South Island lost 1 million, with Silver Fern's share of that southern decline about 300,000 fewer lambs.
''There are less lambs and the flowback comes down to the availability of livestock,'' Mr Cooper said.
He said there was no timeframe for a decision to be made and staff would be consulted this week, offering a glimmer of hope changes ''could well be seasonal'', for just a year.
Silverstream's lamb-cut season is generally from December to May.
The 10 jobs at the Silverstream offal processing and rendering departments were not affected at this stage, he said.
About 800 staff are employed at Finegand, and about 190 at Silverstream.
Silverstream was bought by SFF following the collapse of Fortex in March 1994. During restructuring in July 2008, the plant was sold to Scales Corp of Christchurch and leased back by Silver Fern.
Mr Cooper said yesterday the plant was still being leased from Scales.
Less than a fortnight ago, SFF announced a $1 million plan to refurbish and reopen a former casing plant at Finegand, expected to bring 40 new fulltime jobs to the plant.
The potential job losses would add to a long list of recent Otago redundancy announcements numbering hundreds.
They include AgResearch scientists, KiwiRail's Hillside Workshops and NZ Post workers, Oceana Gold mine and office staff, Summit Wool Spinners in Oamaru, Dunedin City Council's companies Delta and City Forests, printers Wickliffe and Taieri Print, O'Briens in Mosgiel and photocopiers Ricoh.
More than 150 state sector government jobs have been lost from Otago in three years.
