INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana pork producers are facing “unprecedented” challenges right now, in the wake of two Indiana pork processing plants announcing closures due to coronavirus.
“I’d say making contingency plans is happening all over the state right now,” said Josh Trenary, executive director of the Indiana Pork Producers Association.
Just hours after Trenary spoke to AgriNews and with the Tyson processing plant in Logansport already closed due to coronavirus, Indiana Packers announced it was suspending operations at its Delphi plant.
“The temporary suspension is expected to last no longer than two weeks,” IPC said in a news release.
The Delphi plant closure came days after Tyson announced the temporary closure of its plant in Logansport.
“We estimate that Tyson Logansport’s daily slaughter is 15,400 pigs. If we were to estimate the amount of Indiana production that goes into that plant, it’s roughly 45%, so that’s around 6,900 pigs a day for us,” Trenary said.
He said Indiana producers also ship pigs to the JBS plant in Louisville, Kentucky; to Rantoul Foods in Rantoul, Illinois; to the Clemens Food Group plant in Coldwater, Michigan; and to Routh Packing in Sandusky, Ohio.
The two plant closures added to problems for pork producers.
“Things were backing up before this plant closed because other plants were slowing down. Plant closures in other states resulted in a redistribution of pigs. We were shuffling pigs around to account for other plant closures, so we were seeing backups prior to Logansport closing down,” Trenary said.
The major issue that farmers will be dealing with is the backup of pigs that would have been shipped to those plants.
“It’s an unprecedented issue, and they are going to have to develop contingencies. The animal welfare issue here is paramount,” Trenary said.
On April 17, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a farm financial aid package that includes direct payments to crop and livestock producers, as well as large purchases of meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables for distribution to food banks.
That package included $9.6 billion for the livestock industry. Of that, $1.6 billion is earmarked for payments to pork producers.
The payments will be capped at $125,000 per commodity with an overall limit of $250,000 per individual or entity.
Trenary said the program is appreciated — but not enough.
“The direct payments, that’s not going to move the needle, the amount in general and the limitations on those payments, that needs to get resolved,” he said.