HUNDREDS of workers were told yesterday they are to lose their jobs, weeks after their company went into administrative receivership.

About 300 jobs are to go at the Brandons turkey processing plant at Dalton, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, which is to be closed immediately.

The announcement follows a flood of imports into the UK which caused the price of turkey meat to collapse.

Production at the plant was stopped yesterday, although the factory will be looked after on a care and maintenance basis and receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers are looking for a buyer.

The closure will have knock-on effect in the area, hitting about 60 turkey farms and up to 50 other suppliers of services to the factory.

Last night, local Tory MP Anne McIntosh described the move as "terrible news" for the 300 workers affected and pledged to do what she could.

She has already written to the county council, the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and Job Centre Plus to help axed staff find new work.

"This loss of employment and blow to the local economy is particularly unfortunate in an area already hit by the crisis in farming," she said.

Miss McIntosh said the closure also raised animal welfare issues in that turkeys due to be slaughtered at Dalton would now have to be transported to Derbyshire.

She is also writing to Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), over the rising flow of cheap poultry imports in Britain.

"Major supermarkets are importing frozen turkeys from Brazil at prices that undercut the basic production costs of British factories," she said.

"The EU poultry regime has no price support mechanism, so market prices closely reflect the supply and demand situation in the EU and the UK.

"The UK is, therefore, limited in what action it can take to restrict the number of low-cost poultry imports from other countries."