Slaughter capacity continue to be a bottleneck for meat producers. Midwest Market Solutions President Brian Hoops expects the livestock markets to continue to struggle until slaughter levels return to more normal levels. “We may never get back to where we were one year ago unless the plants add larger facilities or another facility just from getting workers back on the production line safely,” says Hoops. “They’ve had to put in different stations and more social distancing to get workers back in safely.” Hoops thinks more packing plants will be needed in the era of social distancing guidelines and regulations. “I don’t know if we’ll have a lot of smaller plants, but I can see some larger plants being built so they can get more workers in there. Going forward, I think there will be so many government restrictions on how many workers can be in a certain square footage area, they’ll need large facilities processing less pork and beef than they have in the past.”
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