Coronavirus: US could face meat shortage after major plants shutter due to Covid-19 infections

The world's leading pork producer closes its South Dakota plant over an outbreak

The US could face a meat shortage amid the coronavirus pandemic after multiple processing plants have shut down over hundreds of staff testing positive for Covid-19.

Smithfield Foods, a Virginia-based company and the world’s biggest pork producer, announced on Sunday its pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, would close until further notice.

The move came after nearly 300 plant workers tested positive for the coronavirus.

But a Smithfield Foods official warned this could lead to a meat shortage as the Sioux Falls plant makes up 4 to 5 per cent of US pork production and supplies about 130m servings of food per week.

“The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,” Smithfield’s Chief Executive Officer Ken Sullivan said in the statement. “It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running.”

Initially, the plant announced a three-day closure last week to sanitise the facility after it became a hotspot in South Dakota for the novel virus. But it would now be closed indefinitely.

“These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers,” Mr Sullivan added.

Other meat processing plants have limited production or closed for a period of time after a surge in cases caused concerns worker safety was at risk.

JBS USA shut beef plant Cargill Meat Solutions in Souderton, Pennsylvania, after 130 workers tested positive for Covid-19 and one union leader from the plant died. The plant was expected to reopen on 16 April.

Another JBS facility that has faced outbreaks among workers was a beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, which saw at least 50 employees testing positive for the virus. The plant has since been closed and officials were working to open it again this week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said.

Health officials have found no evidence Covid-19 could spread through food or on food packaging, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

But that has not stopped food processing plants in states like Colorado, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Georgia from being mpacted by the novel virus.

For the Sioux Falls meat plant, the company said it would continue to pay its employees for two weeks and follow local, state, and national officials’ guidelines about reopening the location.