The Carlow sugar factory is to close this afternoon with the loss of 190 full time and 130 seasonal jobs.
The closure of the 80-year-old factory was announced in January. The Sugar Company blamed the shutdown on EU sugar policy reform expected later this year which will involve cuts in subsidies and quotas.
The company said it would cost €28m more to upgrade the Carlow facility than to modernise the remaining plant in Mallow.
The closure means that Mallow will be the only survivor of the original four factories.
Plants in Tuam and Thurles shut down about 20 years ago.
After the Carlow closure announcement, about 4,000 people demonstrated in Carlow against the move but the company insisted that the decision would not be overturned. Farmers in Leinster will now have to have their beet transported by rail to Mallow to be processed.
