Major grocery chains in the United States are warning of meat shortages and limiting purchases to customers as the coronavirus pandemic takes a toll on the industry.
Kroger, Giant Eagle, and Costco are among a handful of grocers across the country that have announced plans to limit the amount of chicken, pork, and beef purchased as the meat industry feels the blow of the coronavirus with fewer processing plants operating due to outbreaks.
Costco announced Monday that customers can purchase up to three meat items. Giant Eagle, a Pennsylvania grocer, limited purchases to two meat items per customer, while New York-based company Wegmans announced it would be limiting meat purchases, including on ground beef and boneless, skinless family packs of chicken, to two per family. Krogers in Ohio also placed a limit on the amount of meat customers can purchase Monday. Giant announced last week that certain meat products will be limited to two per customer.
“Costco has implemented limits on certain items to help ensure more members are able to purchase merchandise they want and need,” the company said in a statement.
The announcements come as at least 6,300 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in people working in meatpacking plants.
U.S. meat giant Tyson Foods warned in late April that “millions of pounds of meat” will not make it to consumer shelves as processing plants are forced to shutter amid the coronavirus.
“The food supply chain is breaking,” wrote Tyson Foods board of directors Chairman John Tyson in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“We have a responsibility to feed our country. It is as essential as healthcare. This is a challenge that should not be ignored. Our plants must remain operational so that we can supply food to our families in America. This is a delicate balance because Tyson Foods places team member safety as our top priority,” he added.
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie has previously warned that the U.S. could face food shortages due to the “brittle” supply chain, bankrupting farmers and forcing them to euthanize livestock.
“I’m afraid you’re going to see … cattle and hogs being euthanized or incinerated and buried while we have shortages at the supermarket. And you talk about civil unrest when you start seeing that. And it’s all because of the brittle food supply chain,” he said last month.
“The shocking thing is that farmers are watching the value of their hogs and steers, cows, go down. In fact, they’re going to some of the lowest levels ever,” he continued. “So, the question is: Why is the price of meat going up in the supermarkets and the price of cattle going down at the auction ring? It’s because our supply line is brittle.”
