Top pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc. is shutting down two more U.S. plants in a decision that underscores the vulnerability of interconnected food supply chains amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Three days after saying it would close its giant Sioux Falls slaughterhouse in South Dakota because of an outbreak among workers, the company said it plans to shut its Cudahy plant in Wisconsin and its Martin City facility in Missouri later this week.
Cudahy, which makes dry sausage and bacon, will be down for two weeks. Martin City gets its raw materials for making hams from Sioux Falls, meaning its resumption is dependent on the slaughterhouse coming back on line. On Thursday, Tyson Foods Inc. confirmed two deaths among its workforce at the Columbus Junction pork plant in Iowa, which remains idle after closing April 6.
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