The meat industry should not experience any further supply chain disruptions because of the pandemic, the U.S. head of the world’s largest meat company said in a recent interview.
Speaking to a panel organized by the Wall Street Journal, Andre Nogueira, CEO of JBS USA, said he was “pretty confident we are not going to have the size of the disruption we saw in April and May.” He said testing and monitoring of infection levels in the locations around its plants has revealed low infection rates. JBS is bringing back to work older workers who had been sent home with pay during the first stages of the pandemic.
JBS was hit as hard as any meat company during the pandemic, with plants shutting down and workers dying. It was fined by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration in connection with COVID.
Nogueira also told the Journal that the pandemic highlighted how JBS needs the ability to switch quickly between products for foodservice and retail. Future processing lines will be built with that kind of flexibility in mind, he said.
