Americans could soon see shortages of beef, pork, and poultry in their supermarkets as soon as May as major packing plants shutter their facilities hit by the coronavirus, leaving the country’s massive stockpiles of frozen meats to dwindle.
Outbreaks of COVID-19 in employees have forced the closure of about a dozen meat plants around the country in the past week, according to The Wall Street Journal, including three Tyson Foods Inc. plants, Grocery executives are warning that supplies of some products could run short within two weeks, the report said.
Because of closures and partial shutdowns of meatpacking plants, U.S. pork capacity is down about 30 percent. Additionally, the first of some of the country’s big poultry plants were forced to close on Friday because of COVID-19 outbreaks among employees.
Brazil, the U.S., and Canada feed the world
The facts are very real, folks. Taken together, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S. account for about 65 percent of the world’s meat trade. In Canada, 65 percent of its meats are exported, and any downtime due to the coronavirus can impact the whole supply chain. The European Union accounts for about a fifth of global meat exports, according to U.S. government data.
Brazil, the world’s No. 1 shipper of chicken and beef, saw its first major closure on Friday with the shuttering of a poultry plant owned by JBS SA, the world’s biggest meat company. The chicken plant closure comes amid a jump in coronavirus cases in Brazil.
The Montreal Gazette reported Olymel, a Canadian company, is reopening its Yamachiche pork plant after a two-week closure due to COVID-19 amongst its employees. The company had reported that nine employees were infected with COVID-19 at the closure of the facility, but it was later learned that 100 employees were infected with the virus.
The Canadian Press also reports the closing of the Cargill meat-packing plant in High River, Alberta, Canada, as well as Harmony Beef in Alberta.
Resorting to euthanasia
With many slaughterhouses closed due to COVID-19, farmers are left with a tough decision – What to do with their animals. In the latest cruel blow to supply chains, many farmers are forced to euthanize their livestock. This is because raising livestock is a science today.
Farm animals are fed special rations to quickly get them to slaughter-weight. Taking steps to slow the growth of cattle is a lot easier than trying to slow the growth rate of hogs.
“The cattle that are ready for market, they just have to keep in the feedlot longer…and hopefully, they will be able to get them to market — but everything is just slowed down,” said Ken Herz, who runs a cow-calf and feedlot operation in south-central Nebraska and is president of the Nebraska Cattlemen Association.
If needed, producers can slow down growth rates in cattle by sticking with or reverting to lower-energy rations, and this is what many farmers are doing now. But it is the hogs that present a problem.
Because of plant closings, farmers are being forced to euthanize their pigs because there’s a small window of time animals are ready to be processed must be killed. Some economists estimate that the pork industry could lose up to $5 billion throughout the rest of the year, according to Politico.
“It’s absolutely unprecedented,” said Brett Stuart, president of Denver-based consulting firm Global AgriTrends, according to Bloomberg. “It’s a lose-lose situation where we have producers at the risk of losing everything and consumers at the risk of paying higher prices. Restaurants in a week could be out of fresh ground beef.”
