Danish Crown Cuts Jobs as African Swine Fever Cuts Export Opportunities
Danish Crown, Europe’s biggest pork exporter, plans to cut up to 100 jobs at a slaughterhouse in Germany as an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak dating back to September 2020 continues to prevent the business from exporting pork outside of the European Union (EU), reports Just Food.
This slaughterhouse is located in the municipality of Boizenburg, about 40 miles east of Hamburg. In addition to the EU, this facility ships to Japan which has banned imports of German pork due to the ASF outbreak.
Per Laursen, the head of pork production for Danish Crown, told Just Food that it has been difficult to obtain acceptable prices in Europe for the products from their Boizenburg facility. Without any sign of the situation changing soon, they had to make the difficult decision to cut production by half, close down one shift and lay off 100 employees.
After the emergence of ASF in Germany, the company announced it was hiring hundreds of workers at its pork processing sites in Denmark during a time of major demand from countries like China and Japan.
Read more:
Danish Crown to Resume Production in Denmark After COVID-19 Shutdown
China Commits to $100-Million Pork Purchase from Danish Crown