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Poultry and meat processors batten down for Sandy
Story Date: 10/30/2012
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Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 10/29/12
Major poultry and meat processors with plants and customers on the East Coast are taking precautions today that range from shuttering plants to ensuring adequate feed and generator power. Some even stepped up production over the weekend to accommodate food-hoarding consumers.
Perdue Farms
Perdue Farms has shut all four of its Delmarva processing plants in Salisbury, Md., Georgetown, Del., Milford, Del., and Accomac, Va.
“As the storm progresses, we will assess whether or not to run tomorrow,” Perdue spokeswoman Julie DeYoung told Meatingplace. “Our North Carolina operations are not affected and are running normally, as are the rest of our operations, including our Mid-Atlantic Replenishment Center.”
Perdue began days ago to ensure adequate supplies of feed ingredients and feed, and bringing in generators for key operations, including hatcheries and feed mills, and extra generators and fuel to assist our growers in the event of widespread or extended power outages.
Transporting product to customers, however, could be a challenge given East Coast bridge and road restrictions. “Those travel restrictions will significantly impact our ability to ship product off the Shore, especially into the Northeast, DeYoung said. “We are working closely with customers to keep them apprised of the situation.”
Cargill
Cargill will not run a second shift today or a first shift tomorrow at its case ready facility in Hazleton, Pa. and has positioned empty refrigerated trailers in case power fails at the plant and they need to move inventory into the trailers to maintain product integrity.
Cargill spokesman Mike Martin told Meatingplace the major impact, however, is expected to be to its customers, as they have already experienced a run on inventory by consumers stocking up on food.
Cargill’s beef processing plant at Wyalusing, Pa., operated this past Saturday to produce additional beef products in anticipation of customer needs over the next few days. At Wyalusing, the plant will operate fewer hours tomorrow, Martin said.
Cargill’s turkey production complex in western Virginia is operating normally, although possible snow in the surrounding area resulting from Hurricane Sandy could disrupt some live turkey movements to its processing plant in Harrisonburg.
Smithfield Foods
All Smithfield Foods processing facilities are open for business today, though plants in Portsmouth and Smithfield, Va. opened two hours late to ensure employee safety, spokeswoman Keira Lombardo told Meatingplace.
“In addition, all treatment lagoons on company-owned farms are in compliance with state required freeboard levels and they are handling rainfall associated with Sandy without issue,” she said, adding that transportation and other emergency response equipment are ready in case it is needed.
Tyson Foods
"Team members at Tyson Foods’ plants in areas that could be affected by Hurricane Sandy have been making preparations that include topping off feed bins at poultry growers’ farms, reducing levels of wastewater in treatment holding areas, checking generators, cleaning gutters and generally making sure everything is secure," Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson told Meatingplace.
Tyson Foods adivsed Meatingplace late on Monday that three of its poultry operations in the eastern United States have altered their production schedules because of heavy rain and strong winds.
The Tyson plant in Temperanceville, Virginia, is not running Monday or Tuesday, but is scheduled to operate Wednesday. Meanwhile, our poultry plants in Glen Allen, Virginia, and New Holland, Pennsylvania, are operating Monday but will have an abbreviated second shift this evening and a late start on Tuesday morning.
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
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