A truck arrives at Smithfield Foods Inc’s pork plant in Smithfield, Virginia, on Oct. 17 last year.

Photo: Reuters

The world’s biggest pork producer is shuttering a major US plant indefinitely after a coronavirus outbreak among employees, with the company warning that closures across the country are taking US meat supplies “perilously close to the edge” of shortfalls.

Smithfield Foods Inc plans to idle its Sioux Falls, South Dakota, pork-processing facility, which accounts for 4 to 5 percent of US production, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

The move comes after state officials reported more than 200 cases of COVID-19 among plant employees, adding to a spike in infections that have seen hundreds of US meat workers get sick. Plants have been forced to shutter or reduce output.

“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 chief executive officer Ken Sullivan said in the statement. “It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running.”

While it is unclear whether the employee infections have anything to do with the workplaces, the news exposes the vulnerability of global supply chains that are needed to keep grocers stocked after panic buying left shelves empty.

The shuttered plants and sick workers are adding to other disruptions caused by the virus that are making it harder for food to get from farm to table. Trucking bottlenecks and snarled port traffic have also contributed to why shoppers are seeing empty shelves.

The surge in cases has also raised concerns over worker safety. Deaths have been reported for employees at meat facilities owned by JBS SA and Tyson Foods Inc.

Laborers have, in some cases, staged walkouts to protest working conditions. In meat plants, stations on processing lines can be close together, creating challenges for social distancing. Workers also share break and locker rooms.

Smithfield, owned by Hong Kong-listed WH Group Ltd (萬洲國際), originally planned to shutter the South Dakota facility for three days.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem asked for the closure to be extended to at least 14 days, saying in a letter to the company that it needed to “do more.”

The Smithfield facility’s 3,700 employees would receive pay for at least two weeks during the shutdown.

The company said that it would reopen the plant when it receives further direction from local, state and federal authorities.

“Unfortunately, COVID-19 cases are now ubiquitous across our country. The virus is afflicting communities everywhere. The agriculture and food sectors have not been immune,” Sullivan said. “We have continued to run our facilities for one reason: to sustain our nation’s food supply during this pandemic.”

Practically every food company has announced increased measures to protect employees, including meat giants such as Smithfield and Cargill. Companies are enforcing hand washing and spraying down plants and break rooms. Shifts are staggered and lunch breaks are taken alone.

It is a tricky balance for producers who are prioritizing worker safety, but are also trying to meet the huge surge in demand that the virus has unleashed.

While some producers have stepped up hiring to keep food supplies flowing, it is not easy to find workers, even with rising unemployment. The industry has struggled with a reputation of difficult working conditions since the days of Upton Sinclair, the American author who wrote of abuses in his 1906 novel The Jungle.

Producers often rely heavily on immigrant workers to fill jobs that middle-class Americans shun.

If more cases mount and an increasing number of plants are forced to idle, it is difficult to say what the tipping point will be in terms of supply shortfalls.

“We have a stark choice as a nation: We are either going to produce food or not, even in the face of COVID-19,” Sullivan said.

Source: The Taipei Times