JBS SA, the world’s largest beef producer, said it is cutting production at all four of its U.S. plants, citing poor market conditions.
São Paulo, Brazil-based JBS has plants in Greeley; Dumas, Texas; Grand Island, Neb.; and Hyrum, Utah. Hours will be reduced at all plants starting next week, spokesman Marco Sampaio said.
Weekly slaughter at the plants, which can process about 117,000 animals a week, will be reduced by 15,000 head, Sampaio said in an interview. The plants will operate only three to five days a week in the coming weeks, he said, down from a typical six days. The reduced schedule includes holidays for Christmas and New Year’s Day.
JBS, which acquired the plants from Swift & Co. earlier this year, had previously said it intended to add a second shift to the Greeley plant. The company said earlier this year that it expected to have hired 1,300 people for the shift by the end of November.
JBS did not return calls seeking comment about the Greeley operation.
Separately, National Beef Packing Co., the fourth-largest U.S. meatpacker, said it would reduce cattle slaughter at two Kansas plants for several weeks to stem what it called “unprecedented losses.”
JBS’s U.S. operations rank third among the nation’s beef processors, behind Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc.
