On Sunday April 12, 2020 a US major pork processor, Smithfield Meat Plant announced the shut down of their plant. The number of employees who worked at the plant and contracted the virus makes up over half of the state’s positive cases. About 240 employees from the plant have contracted the virus.
The company had said in a press release that the plant’s furloughed employees will be compensated for the next two weeks.
In a statement, Smithfield’s Chief Executive, Kenneth Sullivan, stated that the facilities output represents up to 5 percent of U.S. pork production, supplying 130m servings of food a week and employing 3,700 people, with over 550 independent farmers which supplies the plant. He also warned of “severe” repercussions to the meat supply chain if more manufacturing plants see similar spreads of Covid-19.
“The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is workers at processing plants, like other groups of essential workers, have demanded workplace protections as the virus continues to spread. Plant workers have petitioned companies for better benefits, like paid sick leave and more protective equipment. In response, some companies have implemented pay raises and tried to utilize social distancing in plant operations.
Experts say US consumers should not necessarily be worried about food shortages in the near future. Storage levels of staples including chicken, beef and soybeans were high before the virus hit the US full-force, and food suppliers are starting to reroute their inventories that would typically go to restaurants to supermarkets.
But concerns about the global food supply chain are growing, largely due to unease over trade.
