Estonia, Foodstuff, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Mergers and take-overs

"The price is sensible for both sides. We have ten members, all of whom will make their own input too. Moral support from the government has been of big help to us," Eesti Lihatoostuse Uhistu chairman of the supervisory board Urmas Laht told BNS on Tuesday.

"We've got two sides in this, we will guarantee a loan and will lend ourselves too. A bank will lend 50 percent," the board chairman of the Estonian Rural Development Foundation, Raul Rosenberg, told BNS.

Atria announced in April that it has signed a letter of intent on the sell-off of the Vastse-Kuuste plant but would not disclose the name of the other party or the price. Atria shut down the plant at the beginning of this year citing low pork prices and a difficult market situation and said the facility was up for sale together with equipment.

Urmas Laht, chairman of the supervisory board of the Estonian Pig Breeding Association and a spokesman for Estonian pig farmers, said at the time that pig farmers have been thinking for a long time about buying some meat processing company. Laht refused to be specific when asked if pig farmers could be eyeing any of the production units of Atria Eesti.