Three weeks ago we visited on the WLRY Farm Page about how there was plenty of livestock and adequate supplies of meat locally, and across the U.S., but the logistics of getting it to retail outlets in a timely fashion had become a challenge as consumers were suddenly purchasing more as they began preparing more meals at home. The ‘stay at home’ orders caused restaurants to close, but meat and other food sales to escalate more quickly than meat case inventories could be replenished.
That situation has subsided, but now another challenge to meat supplies has surfaced. Some packing houses that harvest livestock throughout the U.S. are being closed, or harvest being slowed due to workers contracting the COVID-19 virus. Last week JBS closed a beef harvest facility in Pennsylvania for two weeks due to worker illness. Tyson has also closed some of their pork packing facilities.
More recently, Smithfield closed down a pork processing plant in South Dakota for three days in order to do a deep cleaning hoping to prevent further spread of the virus among workers. Shortly after that Smithfield announced that the plant, which employs 3700 workers and accounts for 4% to 5% of the country’s pork production, would be closed until further notice due to the continued impact of the virus on their workforce. Not only will this cause disruption in the meat supply chain, but the more than 550 independent family farmers that supply the plant with livestock have lost their market in the short term.
The U.S. livestock inventory remains more than adequate to meet the needs of the consumer. However, with some packing houses closing, even temporarily, there could again be temporary disruptions to the meat supply chain until packing plants can get back to full production.
On Friday morning, April 10, WLRY’s Mike O’Riley visited with Stan Smith of OSU Extension in Fairfield County, about the meat supply chain disruption that COVID-19 may soon, again be causing in some local big box retail outlets. (Conversation about the packing house closures begins at the 3.5 minute mark.)
– Stan Smith, OSU Extension PA, Fairfield County