At the moment, North Otago’s main employer has two sheep chains and one beef chain operating, with a staff of 800.
Livestock volumes were in line with expectations, plant manager Phil Shuker said.
North Otago’s main employer, the Alliance Group Pukeuri meat processing plant, is going strong with a staff of 800.
Plant manager Phil Shuker said there were two sheep chains and one beef chain operating.
"Livestock volumes are in line with expectations," he said.
"At this stage, our third lamb chain is due to resume at the end of September or early October, subject to livestock availability.
"We will be recruiting approximately 100 employees from the local community for the third chain and encourage anyone who is interested in working at the co-operative to visit our website https://www.alliance.co.nz/work-for-us/."
An extra 100 people would take Pukeuri to its peak season staff of 900.
Meanwhile, the Alliance Smithfield plant at Timaru has about 100 staff operating one venison chain, plant manager Karen Morris said.
Sheep processing had finished for the season and was expected to start again in December.
"Livestock volumes have been steady on last year, although it was a slightly slower start," she said.
Smithfield’s peak workforce was 560 people.
The Alliance Group livestock and shareholder services general manager, Danny Hailes, said the weather in the region had been kind and there was plenty of surplus feed available.
"However, it is starting to get dry and we could do with some rain."
