Pork processing keeping up with demand
Western Canada’s pork processing plants have done an effective job in coping with the disruptions resulting from the pandemic.
Saskatchewan Pork Development Board General Manager Mark Ferguson said processing plant closures in the United States due to COVID-19 have backed up the supply of live hogs.
He said plants in western Canada have implemented social distancing, added dividers, increased space between workers and even added extra shifts to protect their employees.
“Any processing reductions are usually a temporary measure for a couple of weeks until the workforce has recovered, and they’ve isolated the workers that may have been sick,” Ferguson said. “You’re looking at a couple of weeks, best case scenario, and the thing is we can probably hold hogs in barns for one to two weeks without too many issues.”