As meat plants stayed open to feed Americans, exports to China surged
Source: sun-Sentinel/NYTimes
Jun 16, 2020 | 11:29 AM
As meatpacking plants reopen, data about worker illness remains elusive
Smithfield Foods was the first company to warn in April that the coronavirus pandemic was pushing the United States “perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply.” Tyson Foods also sounded the alarm, saying that “millions of pounds of meat will disappear” from the nation’s supply chain as plants were being forced to close because of outbreaks.
That same month, Smithfield sent China 9,170 tons of pork, one of its highest monthly export totals to that market in the last three years. Tyson exported 1,289 tons of pork to China, the most since January 2017.
In all, a record amount of the pork produced in the United States — 129,000 tons — was exported to China in April.
The data compiled by Panjiva, the supply chain research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, and the Department of Agriculture is potentially embarrassing for an industry that trumpeted its role in feeding the American public to argue to keep plants operating during the pandemic. Although some meat companies say much of their exported pork was produced before the outbreak, even previously processed meat could have stocked shelves in April and May............................
Analysts say the meat shortages have subsided, with most plants having reopened, though many are still operating at slower speeds. As some meat companies continue to test their workers, they are still discovering positive cases. So far, 25,523 meatpacking workers have tested positive and 89 have died, according to the Food & Environment Reporting Network, which has been tracking the outbreak.
Read more: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/sns-nyt-meat-plant-exports-to-china-surged-20200616-hftilfc3hvhtzmyxbm2nwy6ixq-story.html
So--it seems the pandemic has a silver lining for meat packing owners.
Workers? nope!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Some random thoughts......
Is this being allowed to prevent Trump's trade war from blowing up in his face? Are we trading pigs for iPhones? I suppose these shipments were to satisfy 2019 contracts but we're still seeing pork product shortages her in north central KY.
We've built all these huge packing plants but I wonder when China's domestic production will be rebuilt, possibly shuttering some of our plants. Another potential disaster would be if the African swine fever came to the U.S. and infected our herds.
These plants produce a lot of pollution and hire primarily migrant labor, and a lot of farmland is used for feedlots and for growing feed grains. For example, North Carolina is suffering environmental blowback from their pork operations.
In the long run, I'm not convinced this a wise thing for America to do......
