Associated British Foods says 160 jobs will be lost at Vivergo site in Hull after ministers refuse to fund rescue
The UK’s largest bioethanol plant is to close after being dealt a body blow by Keir Starmer’s trade deal with Donald Trump.
The owner of the Vivergo plant in Hull, owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), said it would close with the loss of 160 jobs, just hours after the government said it would not fund an industry rescue package. The first redundancies will be made on Tuesday.
The government’s decision creates uncertainty over a further 4,000 jobs in the industry’s supply chain including farmers and hauliers. Bioethanol is a petrol substitute produced from agricultural products.
Vivergo opened a redundancy programme in June. At that point the government held talks with the company, more than a month after ABF warned that the US trade deal was an “existential threat” allowing US producers, for the first time, to compete litre-by-litre under a new duty free agreement for American ethanol.
