The coronavirus is not only impacting Canada’s meat industry. The COVID-19 outbreak has also resulted in the closures of a number of U.S. meat processing plants.
Smithfield Food Inc. indefinitely closed its Sioux Falls-based pork plant after 644 people tied to the facility tested positive for the virus. The plant is now the largest coronavirus hotspot in the entire country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a team to the Smithfield plant earlier this week to manage the outbreak.
Smithfield Foods’ president and chief executive officer Kenneth M. Sullivan warned the closures could result in severe meat shortages across the country.
“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,” he said in a statement.
Tyson Foods and National Beef Packing also suspended operations in their Iowa meat-processing plants due to COVID-19.