Iceland’s slaughtering season has just began with slaughterhouses this year employing an estimated 460 foreign-born workers.
Slaughterhouse owners are increasingly relying on foreign workers as local workers become more and more unavailable. There are now only 200 Icelanders working in the country’s slaughtering operations, compared to 460 foreigners.
The majority of the foreign workers are from Sweden and Poland, but workers from as far away as New Zealand are being hired. Veterinarians, who are responsible for supervising the slaughtering, are also being hired from abroad, according to the Agricultural Authority of Iceland.
During this year’s slaughtering season, directors of the country’s various slaughterhouses estimate that 540,000 sheep will be killed with the greatest numbers being slaughtered by Kaupfélag Skagfirdinga in Saudárkrókur, north Iceland, and the SS slaughterhouse in Selfoss, south Iceland.
The length of the season depends on the numbers of sheep being processed in each location but it usually extends from a few weeks to two months. The two largest slaughterhouses will slaughter approximately 105,000 sheep each. One slaughterhouse in west Iceland will focus solely on the processing of singed sheep’s heads. The Búdardalur slaughterhouse turns 180 tons of sheep’s heads into a delicacy which is mainly sold to markets in the Faroe Islands.