PORTLAND, Ore. — You probably have noticed more changes at local grocery stores. COSTCO and Fred Meyer are now temporarily limiting the amount of meat customers can purchase at one time. This comes as some fear a meat shortage because of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Meat processing plants around the country have had to temporarily close because of COVID 19 spreading among employees over the past few weeks. Businesses like Olympia Provisions and Phil’s Meat Market have been finding ways to adjust.
“We have opened up our supplies lines so we have four to five producers that vs the ordinary one or two,” says Erik Peterson, owner of Phil’s Meat Market. One plant that’s been impacting shoppers here in the Northwest is the temporary closure of the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Washington. The company closed late last month so they could test all of its fourteen hundred workers.
John Wilson with Beef Northwest Feeders and Cattle company in Eastern Oregon says it can take some time for plants to be up and running again. Wilson says it takes anywhere from ten days to two weeks to open after being shutdown assuming interventions are in place.
Wilson adds he doesn’t expect to see a major meat shortage despite food processing plants stopping production over the last couple of weeks. He expects things to get back to normal in terms of a more typical supply by mid to late June.
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