It started with masks, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. Soon, there was no toilet paper. Now we are seeing meat processing plants shut down from Covid-19. What else could go wrong?
Cargill, a beef processing plant in High River, Alberta has now closed it’s doors due to Covid-19 infections among employees. Cargill processes about one third of Canada’s beef processing capacity. At this point in time, there is no planned date to reopen the plant.
Near the end of March, a pork producing plant in Quebec had to shut it’s door temporarily after nine employees tested positive for Covid-19. While this was only one of thirty one production plants and had little effect at the grocery stores, it does bring the possibility of shortages to light.
Farmers who rely on foreign workers are already sounding the alarm about labor shortages leading to production problems in the produce market. While work arounds have been somewhat put into place, there is still concern.
As this virus is likely to take it’s sweet time running it’s course, expect more of this as time goes on. In the two examples above we can see that processing plant closures may or may not affect the food supply. While larger plants that produce a high percentage of the Canadian market are a huge concern, those companies with many smaller plants tend not to have much impact at all.
In the end, food producing plants may or may not have much of an impact. Thankfully, most of these plants seem to be producing one particular product line only. So, if beef becomes an issue, there are any number of other products available. Be aware of what is going on, who is closing, and plan your purchases around that. Remember that there are small, privately owned butchers all over the country that while they may be more expensive, they remain an alternative.
Shortages will come and shortages will go. I suspect we will see this in the months to come o grocery store shelves. Cargill will likely be closed for a while util the plant can be properly disinfected, and hopefully will reopen in the days or weeks to come. Don’t panic every time something like this happens.
