Green Pasture Meats, the Co Longford-based pork processor, saw pre-tax profits fall by almost a fifth (-18%) for its 2017 financial year to just over €1.9m. Accounts recently filed with the companies office (CRO) for the 12 month period to the end of August 2017, show Green Pasture Meats had sales of €31.6m for the year, which was down 6% on the previous year.

Operating profits fell by 17% year on year to €1.9m, as profit margins narrowed from 6.9% in 2016 to 6% last year. The Drumlish-headquartered company, which is owned by Peter and Liam Davis, had more than €6.5m cash at hand by year end, while the net asset value of the business rose to €13.7m. A dividend of €70,000 was paid out during the year. Green Pasture Meats slaughters between 3,500 and 4,000 pigs per week and has an annual capacity to process in the region of 20,000t of pork. In April this year, Green Pasture’s processing facility at Drumlish was taken off the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) priority list of “poorest performing sites”, which is aimed at improving environmental compliance at industrial and waste facilities.