Hands-on as 10,000 eggs need grading

Thursday 8th May 2008, 1:00PM BST.

Fire destroyed Castel Farm Eggs’ packing shed on Saturday.

CASTEL Farm Eggs has continued its daily production of 10,000 eggs despite a fire that ravaged the packing shed.

Owners of the La Vassalerie operation, Martin and Gill Freeman, which supplies to all Sandpiper-owned stores, Le Riche, Island Wide, Alliance and the Co-op, are determined to keep up the daily rigours of the business.

‘We have just under 16,000 chickens producing on average 10,000 eggs a day,’ said Mrs Freeman. ‘It’s business as usual but because of the fire we lost the piece of machinery that grades the eggs by size, so we are having to do it all by hand.

‘It normally takes about one-and-a-half hours but it is taking us much longer without the equipment and there isn’t anything like it in the island.’