The Marbek Slaughterhouse in the southern town Kiryat Malachi shut down operations on Sunday. Marbek's operations will be transferred to Tnuvah's Edom Edom Factory in Beit Shean, located in the Jordan Valley. Marbek laid off some 120 workers in the Kiryat Malachi area.
Tnuvah, a 620-member Israeli cooperative, is the largest dairy products manufacturer in Israel. Its sales account for 70% of the country's dairy market as well as sales of meat, eggs and packaged food.
The Marbek Slaughterhouse had been in operation since the 1950's. The
slaughterhouse is owned collectively by the Southern Regional
Kibbutzim Cooperation and two Moshavs. Marbek sustained considerable
debts by the middle of the 90s. In cooperation with the debt holders,
the cooperation rented Marbek to a company owned by Dudi Ezra and Rafi
Shochat. According to the deal, profits would go towards repayment of debts.
Recently, Ezra decided to leave the partnership. Shochat claims that
due to the current recession, he is no longer able to finance the
slaughterhouse operations. He has therefore been forced to sign the
deal with Tnuvah. Sources state that the Marbek owners will now try
to rent out the slaughterhouse in order to cover debts totaling
millions of shekels.
The Edom Edom Slaughterhouse, which was built in 2005 at the cost of
170 million shekels, is considered one of the most modern in the Middle
East and produces beef under the "Teri Teri" brand. The
slaughterhouse has registered losses of 250 million shekels since its
inception. Tnuvah hopes that this latest windfall in acquiring the
business of Marbek will help boost profits.
The CEO of the Livestock Raisers Association, Chaim Dayan, told The
Marker that he does not expect meat to rise in price as a result of
the transfer of operations from Marbek to Tnuvah. He explained that
the supply of fresh meat in Israel far exceeds the demand, and
therefore the transfer of operations to Tnuvah does not help it to
establish a monopoly. However, he did claim that the price in meat
has risen 8-10% recently due to increased demand of livestock for the
Arab festivals.