Another wave of coronavirus-driven closures of meatpacking plants is unlikely because worker testing and safety practices have improved since the spring, the chief executive of JBS USA Holdings Inc. Andre Nogueira said.
Meat companies have installed automated temperature checkpoints, distributed safety gear to plant workers and installed partitions between some workstations to catch COVID-19 symptoms and prevent its spread in plants.
“I'm pretty confident we are not going to have the size of the disruption we saw in April and May,” Nogueira remarked during a Wall Street Journal Global Food Forum this week. “The number of positives over the last two or three months in the plants has been pretty low.”
Others at the forum indicated that changes in supply chains have also factored into expectations that disruptions are not likely to match those seen earlier this year.