JBS closes large US pork plant due to coronavirus
Meatpacker and tannery owner JBS has announced the temporary closure of another facility in the US after workers contracted coronavirus.
Its pork processing plant in Worthington employs more than 2,000 Nobles County team members and processes 20,000 hogs per day.
“We don’t make this decision lightly,” said Bob Krebs, president of JBS USA Pork. “We recognize JBS Worthington is critical to local hog producers, the US food supply and the many businesses that support the facility each and every day.”
The Worthington pork facility will wind down operations over the next two days with a diminished staff to ensure existing product in the facility can be used to support the food supply.
“As we all learn more about coronavirus, it is clear that the disease is far more widespread across the US and in our county than official estimates indicate based on limited testing,” Krebs said. “We have taken aggressive actions to keep coronavirus out of our plant and keep this critical infrastructure facility operational. It is our hope that Governor Walz’s effort to implement more widespread community testing will help all of us better understand the measures we must all take to stop its potential spread. We must work together to defeat this common enemy.”
JBS USA operates more than 60 meat, poultry and prepared foods facilities across the United States. The Worthington pork production facility is the third JBS USA plant to temporarily close, joining the Souderton beef production facility, which reopened on Monday, April 20, and the Greeley beef production facility which remains closed.
Tyson, National Beef and Smithfield are also among companies to close meat processing factories.
