MPPTA

Smaller Processors Help Buffer the Impact of Large Packers Fleeing Town

Large packing plants seem to be falling like dominoes across rural America. 

In recent months, Tyson Foods has closed a plant in Nebraska, reduced a Texas facility to one shift, announced the closure of another plant in Illinois and the elimination of case-ready operations in Utah, and put a Washington state plant up for sale. Meanwhile, JBS is eliminating slaughter operations at a facility it owns in Pennsylvania.

Cattle ranchers and feeders supplying those plants now must figure out where they can feasibly ship their animals for harvest.

In Puerto Rico: A Shining Facility on a Hill

The mood was festive on August 5th as local dignitaries, cooperative development leaders, USDA’s State Rural Development Director, and Flower Hill Institute's Regional Directors joined Puerto Rican farmers beneath two tents offering shade from the searing sun on a hilltop in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

The occasion: the grand reopening of the Puerto Rico Meat Processing Center, acquired earlier this year by Cooperativa de Porcicultores de Puerto Rico, a cooperative owned by more than 70 hog producers in the region.