New York (AFP)

The American meat giant Tyson Foods announced Thursday the temporary closure of an additional slaughterhouse because of the Covid-19, thus increasing the list of similar sites due to suspend operations and rekindling concerns on the supply chain.

The group has interrupted the activities of its subsidiary in Pasco, in the state of Washington, while waiting for the 1,400 employees to be tested, details a press release. This factory usually produces beef for 4 million people.

"We are working with local health officials to reopen the slaughterhouse as soon as we consider it safe to do so," Tyson Foods official Steve Stouffer said in the document.

"Unfortunately, the closure of this site results in a reduction in supply and poses problems for breeders who do not know where to bring their animals. This is a complicated situation throughout the supply chain" , he added.

Because slaughterhouse closings are increasing in the country due to the contamination of employees.

Tyson Foods has thus ceased operations in two other pig slaughterhouses, in Iowa and Indiana. And several of its other sites operate in slow motion due to additional precautionary measures or higher absenteeism.

Its competitor JBS USA announced Monday the closure of a factory slaughtering 20,000 pigs per day in Minnesota, in addition to another site liquidating cattle in Colorado. However, he reopened a slaughterhouse in Pennsylvania after several days of suspension.

Smithfields Foods announced last week the closure of two meat processing plants in Wisconsin and Missouri, in addition to its slaughterhouse in Sioux Falls, which alone accounts for 4% to 5% of the pork production in the United States.

- No shortage yet -

According to the union representing employees in the agro-food sector UFCW, activity was temporarily suspended on 13 sites with a total of 24,500 employees in the past two months. This would have resulted in a 25% drop in the capacity for slaughtering pigs in the country, and a 10% drop in the slaughter of cattle.

The union called on the authorities to better protect people working in slaughterhouses by increasing tests or making social distancing measures in factories mandatory. To his knowledge, 13 people working in slaughterhouses or meat processing sites died from Covid-19.

The shutdown of these sites has not yet triggered a general shortage in stores, but the risk is becoming more acute, according to experts.

Thus for Rachel Gantz, communication manager at the National Council of Pork Producers, "there is currently a crisis in the farms but no supply problems".

"There could be problems in the long term if the disruptions in the slaughterhouses continue," she said in a message to AFP.

"If other slaughterhouses and meat processing plants suspend their operations for a long time", then disturbances could appear "around mid-May," said Glynn Tonsor, an economist specializing in agriculture at the University. from the state of Kansas.

In the short term, a recent report from the Ministry of Agriculture "showed that the month of April had started with large supplies of meat including levels of beef, pork and chicken above previous years" , he stressed to AFP while also recalling that demand for collective catering remained weak in April.

© 2020 AFP