Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 8/29/11

Most major protein processors along the East Coast were spared major damage when Hurricane Irene made landfall over the weekend, although officials in several states noted significant damage to the agricultural industry, including tobacco and corn farms.

Here’s a look at how several companies weathered the storm:
• Smithfield Foods announced that it expects to return to business as usual at its processing facilities and farms in North Carolina and Virginia, although it also reported minor structural damage to some barns that belong to contract farmers in the area.

• Tyson Foods says plants in Temperanceville and Glen Allen, Va., were mostly unaffected by Hurricane Irene, with no structural damage reported at either facility, a spokesman told Meatingplace this morning. Most family farmers who grow chickens for Tyson in Virginia fared well although some were affected by sporadic power outages and were forced to use generators.

• Perdue Farms reported power outages at several poultry farms in North Carolina and the Delmarva area, although all of its facilities avoided major structural damage from the hurricane-force winds and significant rainfall. An estimated 300 farms in North Carolina and about 10 percent of Perdue’s chicken farms on Delmarva are operating on generators as of Monday morning.

Sanderson Farms told Meatingplace that there were “very minor issues” at its newly opened Kinston, N.C., poultry plant from Irene, with power that was lost Saturday morning being fully restored by Sunday afternoon and no structural damage to the facility.

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