Meat+Poultry - December 2020 - 18

YEAR IN REVIEW

OPENING OBSTACLES

Some processors set up
COVID-19 testing trailers
outside their plants to
protect employees and
the health care workers
administering the tests.

MEAT+ POULTRY | 12.20 | www.meatpoultry.com

CoVigilance

public gatherings forced most restaurants
to either close or transition to carryout or
delivery models. Consumers flooded grocery
stores, many binge buying and leaving a path of
empty meat cases behind them. In many cases,
retailers rationed high-demand items, including
meat and poultry products as well as toilet
paper, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies.
Even before widespread lockdowns, Joe
Pawlak, managing principal at Technomic
warned that the restaurant industry was facing
a dire future.
" This will be the worst year by far for the
foodservice industry since we started tracking
it in 1969, " he said. " The worst was in 2009,
when we saw a 1% decline overall during the
financial crisis, " he said in late March.
As the year progressed, Pawlak's prediction
was unfortunately accurate.
Meanwhile, April and May were perhaps
the most challenging for processors, as many
packing plants closed for weeks at a time
due to COVID outbreaks and labor shortages.
Those that did remain open were often
running as low as 50% of capacity. A shortage
of workers resulting from a combination of
illnesses and fear of becoming infected created
a bottleneck of live animals at many plants and
on farms, resulting in hundreds of thousands
of healthy animals being euthanized. For pork
producers and processors, April 29 was a
day most would rather forget, as the number
of unharvested pigs peaked at over 203,000
that day. The pork industry faced a mass
depopulation situation of historic proportions.
Surplus supplies of live animals caused backups in the poultry and beef sectors as well, but
not on the scale of the pork industry.

President Trump issued an executive order on
April 28, citing the Defense Production Act,
to keep meat processing plants open to hold
off possible shortages of beef, pork, chicken
and other meats. The order was followed by
US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue
writing letters to governors and public health
officials spelling out the " clear expectations
for the implementation of President Donald
J. Trump's Executive Order, " signed the
previous week.
" USDA expects state and local officials
to work with these critical meat processing
facilities to maintain operational status while
protecting the health of their employees, "
Perdue said. " Meat processing facilities are
critical infrastructure and are essential to the
national security of our nation. "
As positive cases at meat and poultry
processing plants persisted and more plants
were ordered to close, the leaders of some of
the industry's largest companies went public
with their frustration and spelling out the
dilemma they faced to lawmakers and public
health officials.
Responding to a joint letter from Senators
Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren in June,
which was critical of Smithfield Foods and
other prominent companies' responses to the
pandemic, Smithfield's president and CEO Ken
Sullivan defended his company and the meat
and poultry processing industry and the critical
need for its operations to not be interrupted.
" Operating is not a question of profits; it
is a question of necessity. We believe it is our
obligation to help feed the country and support
American farmers, now more than ever, "
Sullivan's letter said. " During this pandemic,
our entire industry has been faced with an
impossible choice: continue to operate to
sustain our nation's food supply or shutter
in an attempt to entirely insulate our team
members from risk. It is an awful choice; it is
not one we wish on anyone.
" But it is impossible to keep protein on
tables across America if our nation's meat
plants are not running. "
In a June 9 update on the pandemic,
Secretary Perdue announced updated USDA
data indicated that the 3,800-plus federally
inspected meat and poultry plants in the
United States were operating at more than

http://www.meatpoultry.com

Meat+Poultry - December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat+Poultry - December 2020