About 240 employees at the plant contracted the virus, making up over half of the state’s positive cases

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

A major pork manufacturing plant in South Dakota has indefinitely shut down after more than 200 of its employees contracted Covid-19.

According to Smithfield, who runs the plant, the facility’s output represents up to 5% of US pork production, supplying 130m servings of food a week and employing 3,700 people. Over 550 independent farmers supplied the plant.

The company that runs the plant, Smithfield Foods, announced the closure of its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Sunday, a day after the state’s governor, Kristi Noem, asked the company to suspend the plant’s operation for at least 14 days.

The number of employees who worked at the plant and contracted the virus makes up over half of the state’s positive cases. About 240 employees from the plant have contracted the virus.

The company said in a press release that the plant’s furloughed employees will be compensated for the next two weeks.

In a statement, Smithfield’s chief executive, Kenneth Sullivan, warned of “severe” repercussions to the meat supply chain if more manufacturing plants see similar spreads of Covid-19.

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

Other meat manufacturers similarly shut down plant operations after multiple employees contracted Covid-19.

Tysons Food Inc halted a pork processing plant in Iowa after two dozen employees got the virus, while JBS USA closed a beef plant in Pennsylvania for two weeks after multiple plant managers reported flu-like symptoms.

Across the country, agricultural and food production workers are deemed essential and are allowed to work, often in close quarters, regardless of local shelter-in-place orders.

Workers at processing plants, like other groups of essential workers, have demanded workplace protections as the virus continues to spread. Plant workers have petitioned companies for better benefits, like paid sick leave and more protective equipment. In response, some companies have implemented pay raises and tried to utilize social distancing in plant operations.

Experts say US consumers should not necessarily be worried about food shortages in the near future. Storage levels of staples including chicken, beef and soybeans were high before the virus hit the US full-force, and food suppliers are starting to reroute their inventories that would typically go to restaurants to supermarkets.

But concerns about the global food supply chain are growing, largely due to unease over trade.