AFTER years of producing some of the world's finest food, the wood-fire ovens at a Gwent smokery will today be extinguished.

Minola Smoked Products, an Abergavenny institution, is to close its doors due to rocketing insurance costs which have made the business unviable.

Now shipments of Gwent-smoked meats, fish and cheeses are making their way to the company's top clients in Hong Kong, Bahrain and Dubai for the very last time. Among the last orders leaving the Abergavenny site are beef strip-loins headed for the Tate Gallery restaurant in London. Owner Hugh Forestier-Walker told the Argus it had been an emotional time for him, his nine staff, and customers.

He said: "Some of my staff have been with me for five years, so it is hard. We've been looking to find them jobs, and four have secured employment."

Minola first began trading on October 14, 1984 - exactly 20 years and a day ago.

As one of only five traditional smokeries in the UK, the award-winning business has attracted such customers as the Park Lane Hotel, in London, and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in Bahrain.

But after an auction of equipment on November 10, the site is to be sold to make way for a housing development.

Mr Forestier-Walker said: "I would love for the adopted road to be named The Old Smokery in memory of this place."

Since Minola moved to their current site five years ago, the sight and smell of billowing smoke has become a feature in the market town.

And as a regular sponsor of the Abergavenny Food Festival, its closure is a blow for the town's growing reputation as a culinary enclave. Janet Hutchings, owner of The Bell, at Skenfrith, has been a regular customer.

She said: "We're very upset by the closure, it's a great loss to the culinary community.

"Minola was always open to experimentation - they would smoke anything for us, even tomatoes and potatoes."