Arlene Foster refuses to explain why no civil servants at Moy Park meeting

Poultry processor Moy Park – Northern Ireland’s biggest private sector employer – targeted the scheme because it made money from it via a complex pricing structure which few in Stormont understood.

While it seemed to outsiders that poultry farmers were making a fortune from RHI, actually much of the benefit was accruing to Moy Park and its multinational owner.

In January 2016, the company was tipped off by Mrs Foster’s key advisor, Andrew Crawford, that RHI was to close and senior executives began a concerted effort to get as many of its farmers into the scheme as possible, further increasing the cost to taxpayers of the disastrous scheme.

A new book by News Letter Political Editor Sam McBride sets out at least four ways in which Moy Park financially benefited from ‘cash for ash’.

The book, Burned, which goes on sale today, reveals that a DUP source who at a senior level worked with Dr Crawford over many years described the spad as having been “so, so close” to Moy Park.

The political figure said: “Moy Park certainly cultivated that relationship – dinners, lunches, etc. But I don’t believe for a second that Crawford was paid by them.”

The DUP source also said: “Andrew Crawford was unusually interested in RHI. He was all over it like a rash.”

In 2008, Moy Park had been bought by giant Brazilian meat processor Marfrig in a $680 million deal. But within just seven years, Moy Park’s valuation more than doubled.

In September 2015 – as Moy Park’s farmers were piling into RHI – the company was sold to another Brazilian meat giant, JBS.

Less than a year later, bribery charges – unconnected to the Moy Park sale – would begin to be levelled at senior JBS figures in a massive scandal which would shake Brazilian society.

Moy Park has since been sold by JBS – but to a company which it controls, Pilgrim’s Pride, in a sale which attracted further allegations and litigation from shareholders.

In 2013, Mrs Foster travelled to Brazil on a trade mission. In her role as Stormont’s enterprise, trade and investment minister, one of her major engagements was with Marfrig.

The book reveals Mrs Foster’s briefing notes, showing that on the night of May 23, she had been due to dine with Marfrig executives at the Michelin-starred Mani Manioca, one of Sao Paulo’s hippest restaurants.

According to the briefing material, she was to conduct the key meeting – unusually – without her civil servants.

It was the only event on the entire trade mission where one of Foster’s officials or an official from the British consulate did not accompany the minister.

Only Dr Crawford and Invest NI chief executive Alastair Hamilton, a former DUP spad, were to be present. The unusual situation was justified on the basis that it was “to ensure that the two Marfrig representatives aren’t overwhelmed”.

The purpose of the meeting was “to further discuss Marfrig’s presence in Northern Ireland”. When asked questions about the meeting, Foster and Crawford replied with a solicitor’s letter which did not answer the questions and failed to provide any explanation for what had gone on – but instead threatened to sue for libel.

The letter also said that the meeting had been shifted from dinner to breakfast and that the DUP figures “did not meet with Marfrig executives without officials present in order to ensure there was no minute of the meeting”.

The letter added that a translator had been present, although it would not be the role of a translator to record a civil service minute of what transpired.

Stormont’s rules state that departmental meetings with external individuals must be minuted.

When asked what she had done to ensure that an accurate record of the meeting was kept, Mrs Foster declined to respond.

The year after Mrs Foster travelled to Brazil, Marfrig chief executive Sergio Rial said the company had “ongoing, positive engagement with the Northern Ireland Executive and have experienced a very pro-business attitude”.

Responding to questions from the News Letter about why Mrs Foster met Marfrig executives without her civil servants being present, and what steps she had taken to ensure that an accurate record of what was discussed was kept, a DUP spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on issues related to the work of the public inquiry before that process has been completed.”