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Ag businesses close a few MO facilities

Two meat production companies are closing some facilities in Missouri to restructure their business.

Missouri Ag Director Chris Chinn says record high feed costs were part of Tyson’s decision to close two poultry processing plants.

“And Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has been around the last two years and they’re looking at ways to be more efficient and improve their bottom line. They’ve lost money the last two quarters and they were trying to do what they could to be sustainable.”                       

But Chinn says Tyson was happy with how the state supported its business. Governor Mike Parson tells Brownfield…

“We’ve been great partners with Tyson for many years and they still have facilities in the state,” he says. “They made a business decision. We hated to lose those jobs, but our job now is to relocate people with new jobs.”

In the last week, Tyson Foods said it would close four plants in the first quarter of 2024 including two in Missouri, one in Indiana and another in Arkansas. Tyson is reporting operating losses of $315 million.

Smithfield Foods will also be closing 35 sow production facilities in northern Missouri by October and Chinn says…

“We’ve had a lot of pork supplies on the market and they were taking a responsible approach to try and reduce some of those supplies so we could become more profitable. The facilities they shut down were old and the company is still staying in Missouri.”

She says Smithfield has sows in the southern part of the state and weaning pigs will now be shipped to northern Missouri to be closer to the packing plant.

Brownfield interviewed Chinn and Parson at the Missouri State Fair.