Despite being frozen out of the Chinese export market for a month because of a labelling mistake, the Oamaru Lean Meats meat processing plant will not have to stand down any workers.
The Ministry of Primary Industries suspended certification to China from Lean Meats Ltd on August 10, because it did not comply with labelling requirements on some cartons.
A similar error at the Alliance Group's Pukeuri meat processing plant, near Oamaru, resulted in 240 seasonal workers being laid off on August 8 but Lean Meats Ltd chief executive Richard Thorp said yesterday that would not happen at its Oamaru operation, which employed more than 200 people, depending on the time of year.
Mr Thorp said while he was not familiar with the details of the Pukeuri labelling error, it was probable that a similar issue had occurred at the Lean Meats Oamaru plant.
''It's an unfortunate mistake. We decided to bring some product back from China to repack it and we had to notify MPI.''
However, it was still business as usual at the plant itself, and there was no question of the 160 off-peak workers being stood down or a reduction in hours, he said.
''We had MPI audit the plant and that's been successful and we are now just waiting for the Chinese equivalent to lift the suspension.
''We have diverted to some other markets, but we are optimistic things will be sorted very shortly and back under way.
''We are a single operation in the South Island, we don't have another plant to go to, and we are working on various options with our marketing team and working with the plant.
"At the moment it's satisfactory but, of course, we would like that pause or suspension lifted as quickly as possible.''
Mr Thorp said he was ''very hopeful'' that the Chinese suspension could be lifted ''very soon''.
China is also yet to lift a suspension on products from the Alliance Group's Pukeuri meat works, after MPI revoked the plant's export licence twice in July, due to a labelling error and the exportation of products from a facility that was not listed by Chinese authorities.
