HUNDREDS of workers have lost their jobs just weeks after their company went into administrative receivership.

Some 300 jobs were lost at the Brandons turkey processing plant at Dalton near Thirsk.

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 last week and the factory shut down, although it will be looked after and maintained.

Receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers, who were called in last month, are still looking for a buyer.

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

Tory MP Anne McIntosh said the closure was terrible news for the 300 workers. She has pledged to do what she can to help those made redundant.

Miss McIntosh has already written to the county council, the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and JobCentre Plus to help redundant staff to find new work.

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

Miss McIntosh said the closure also raised animal welfare issues. Turkeys due to be slaughtered at Dalton will now have to be transported to Derbyshire.

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

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

"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."

Brandons is based in Derbyshire.