FORT KENT (AP) – Fifty people lost their jobs Tuesday when NorSun Food Group Inc. potato processing plant closed its doors.

Employees said NorSun’s president told them that the company is consolidating operations in Idaho because of declining sales brought on by the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets and changes in consumer demand for potatoes.

Workers said they were not given any warning that the plant would close. As many as a dozen farmers who sold their crop to NorSun are also affected.

Andre Picard, 61, and his wife, Marie-Jeanne Picard, worked at the plant for six and 14 years, respectively. She is an office worker and will work until Aug. 20, but he worked his last day Monday.

“We did not see this coming,” Andre Picard said. “They came, told us and closed the doors. That’s it.

“They told us they are no longer selling (as many) potatoes, and they have a lot ahead of themselves. Some people who worked there are hurting.”

Municipal officials and local farmers said they suspected the plant might close after the company did not sign contracts for potatoes with growers this spring.

A phone call to the Idaho office of Linda Pennington, NorSun’s president and chief executive officer, was not returned Wednesday.

NorSun manufactures a variety of processed potato products for industrial customers, restaurants, hospitals and schools.

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said members of her staff planned to meet Thursday with members of NorSun’s staff and a Fort Kent town official.

Snowe said the Maine Department of Labor also set up a meeting with NorSun officials and expects to meet with employees in a few days.

“Over the coming weeks, my staff and I will examine each and every opportunity available to mitigate the effects that the closure of the NorSun processing plant in Fort Kent will have on the workers, their families and the surrounding community,” Snowe said.