File photo of a truck arriving at a Smithfield Foods pork plant at Smithfield, Va. on Oct. 17, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Tom Polansek)

Smithfield Foods to pay US$75 million in pork price-fixing settlement

Follows similar settlement by JBS

Reuters — Smithfield Foods has agreed to pay US$75 million to settle a lawsuit by consumers who accused the meat producer and several competitors of conspiring to inflate prices in the $20 billion-a-year U.S. pork market by limiting supply. A preliminary settlement in the antitrust case was filed on Tuesday night with the federal court […] Read more

An image created by Nexu Science Communication, together with Trinity College in Dublin, shows a model structurally representative of a betacoronavirus, the type of virus linked to COVID-19. (Nexu Science Communication via Reuters)

U.S. pork packer Smithfield offers ultra-cold vaccine storage

COVID-19 vaccines need storage at -20 C, -70 C

Chicago | Reuters — Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork processor, said on Thursday it had offered to help U.S. health officials distribute COVID-19 vaccines and store them in ultra-cold freezers that are in high demand to support a public vaccination campaign. U.S. states, cities and hospitals are scrambling to buy freezers that can safely […] Read more


File photo of Smithfield Foods’ pork plant at Sioux Falls, S.D. on April 16, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

U.S. meatpacking workers often absent after plants ordered to reopen

"There's still so many risks"

Chicago/Washington | Reuters — Smithfield Foods is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to work after a severe coronavirus outbreak, according to the workers’ union. Tyson Foods was forced to briefly close its Storm Lake, Iowa plant — a month […] Read more

File photo of a truck arriving at a Smithfield Foods pork plant at Smithfield, Va. on Oct. 17, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Tom Polansek)

Smithfield starting to reopen Sioux Falls hog plant, union says

Major plant was shuttered by COVID-19 outbreak

Chicago | Reuters — Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork processor, resumed limited operations on Monday at a massive South Dakota slaughterhouse it closed last month because of the coronavirus pandemic, the union representing plant employees said. The closure of the plant and other slaughterhouses due to coronavirus cases among employees has led to temporary […] Read more


(Deyana Robova photo/iStock/Getty Images)

Smithfield to close Illinois pork facility

Workers test positive for COVID-19

Reuters — World’s largest pork processor Smithfield Foods said Friday it will suspend operations at its Monmouth, Illinois pork processing facility next week after some employees tested positive for COVID-19, adding to already strained U.S. meat supplies. The news of some of the company’s 1,700 employees at the plant testing positive comes a day after […] Read more

(TysonFoods.com)

COVID-19 forces Tyson to shutter two major U.S. pork plants

UPDATED — Reuters — Tyson Foods is shuttering two pork processing plants, including its largest in the United States, to contain the spread of the coronavirus, further tightening meat supplies after other major slaughterhouse shutdowns. The closures are limiting the amount of meat the U.S. can produce during the outbreak and adding stress on farmers […] Read more