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The USDA has published a working paper describing how COVID-19 affected the United States pork packing industry. COVID-19 had a detrimental effect on regional slaughter volumes in the beginning months of the pandemic, but each region recovered differently.
Major pork processing regions, such as Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) and Region 7 (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska), had between 30–40% declines in weekly slaughter volumes compared with 2019, but these declines occurred for approximately three weeks at the start of the pandemic. Both regions were temporarily affected and recovered even as cases in the area continued to increase for the rest of 2020. These regions make up 73% of total pork processed in the United States.
Minor processing regions had mixed reactions to the pandemic. For instance, Region 2 (New Jersey and New York) experienced a large decline in slaughter, but, unlike major processing regions, the shock persisted throughout the year—slaughter rates were lower than 2019 levels. Total slaughter volume in Region 2 is less than 1% of total U.S. volume.
Overall, most regions in 2020 had increases in total slaughter compared with 2019, suggesting the industry suffered at the beginning of the pandemic but adjusted production and at least partially recovered.
The report also examines the effect plants location could have, the correlations between COVID-19 cases and regional slaughter volumes, and the size of plant. Read the full paper here: Working Paper- Changes in Regional Hog Slaughter During COVID-19
December 2, 2021/ USDA/ United States.
https://www.ers.usda.gov
