The Darginių žemės ūkio společnost (Darginių žemės ūkio bendrovė (ŽŪB) in Joniškis district, which is switching from livestock farming to horticulture, is laying off more than a third of its workforce.

The company has informed the Employment Service that 17 out of 44 people have been made redundant. The office told BNS on Wednesday that the reason for the layoffs – the shareholders' decision provides for the closure of its livestock activities.

„We are changing (the nature of the activities – BNS). We are moving away from livestock farming, we are going to horticulture“, – BNS was told by the Chairman of Darginiai ŽŪB Juozas Dūda, who refused to comment on the situation in detail. 

He said the company would continue to grow grain and would not discontinue this activity. 

According to the Authority, the redundancies are mainly of farm operators – 6, while four watchmen and other staff will also lose their jobs. According to the company's report submitted to the Centre of Registers, it made a net profit of €139,300 last year, almost three times less than the previous year (€404,700), and its revenue fell by 16% to €3.1 million (€3.7 million).

At the end of 2023, the company employed 51 people, by 2022 - 52.