America has an abundance of livestock, but U.S. hog producers need harvest facilities up and running to convert that abundancy into food, explained Smithfield Foods CEO and president Kenneth Sullivan during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News on Wednesday.
The abundancy of food U.S. livestock producers grow presents a good opportunity in normal circumstances to export that protein to 40 different countries around the world, Sullivan said.
But the linchpin in the middle between the farmer and the consumer is the harvest facility. The temporary closures of pork packing plants and rising employee absenteeism due to COVID-19 has exacerbated an existing harvest facility capacity challenge due to a labor shortage in rural America, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) said in a statement on Tuesday.
“There is no question about it, the pork farmers in this country are under heavy duress,” Sullivan said. “And they’ve gone through a period here of about two years where whether it was the trade disruptions and now, this COVID-19 where every restaurant in the country just about has been closed. They’re under heavy duress, and they need government support.”
Dermot Hayes, an economist with Iowa State University, and Steve Meyer, a pork industry economist with Kerns & Associates, estimate that hog farmers will lose nearly $37 per hog, or almost $5 billion collectively, for each hog marketed for the rest of the year, NPPC said.
“I don’t want to be Chicken Little here, but I’m telling you there’s an acute crisis that we’ve got to deal with; we have to operate these processing plants even when we have COVID. If we don’t, we sadly won’t have food,” Sullivan said.
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue tweeted on Wednesday afternoon that he is working with Governor Kristi Noem and Smithfield Foods to “get the Sioux Falls pork plant reopened ASAP to help minimize disruptions to our critical food supply chain, while making sure employees working there are safe.”
In addition, Sullivan thanked the food workers in the U.S. for their service to their country during this pandemic.
“They are maintaining the continuity of our food supply. They’re doing it in a selfless way,” Sullivan said. “We have COVID cases across the protein sector in other places, including retail. These employees keep showing up and they are maintaining the continuity of the food supply. They are just like doctors and nurses, and I want America to understand that they owe a debt of gratitude to these employees.”
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Pork Industry Faces $5 Billion Loss Due to COVID-19
Pork Industry Prepares for Ripple Effects of Smithfield Plant Closing
Tyson Foods to Keep Columbus Junction Plant Closed Another Week
VIDEO: SD Smithfield Plant Temporarily Closes as State Stays Open
Pork and Beef Plant Closures: Dynamic Disruptions Continue
Longer Processing Plant Closures Creating Dire Situation for Pork
Smithfield Foods To Close Sioux Falls Plant Indefinitely Amid COVID-19
