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Smithfield Foods will suspend operations at its Monmouth, Illinois, facility beginning next week and until further notice after a small portion of its 1,700 employees tested positive for COVID-19. The Monmouth plant represents approximately 3% of U.S. fresh pork supplies and also produces bacon. Employees will be paid during the closure.

This week on our From the Cold Corner podcast, we sit down with Tom Swovick, market development manager for proteins at Dematic, to discuss the future of cold storage and logistics through the lens of automation and AGVs, as well as what solutions might be out there to help ease the strain on the cold foods chain from COVID-19 disruptions. Swovick also details Dematic’s virtual tradeshow plans while industry conventions are shut down--a business pivot becoming more common to connect with clients as shelter-in-place continues. 

Farm Rich donated over 1,700 pounds of product--approximately 24,000 mozzarella cheese sticks--to five local food banks and organizations providing food to residents in need. The donations were made to the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia (Brunswick, Georgia, located near Farm Rich HQ), Cincinnati Area Senior Services, and The Healing Center (both in Cincinnati, Ohio), and the Mid-South Food Bank (Memphis, Tennessee).

New numbers from NCSolutions for the week ending April 18 support the trend that many cold foods are still selling strong, focusing on frozen food categories in particular. Week-over-week numbers showed a decline in most frozen categories, which NCSolutions attributes to slower Easter weekend shopping when many stores were closed for the holiday.

Tyson Fresh Meats, the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods, plans to indefinitely suspend operations at its Waterloo, Iowa, pork plant this week. The facility, the company’s largest pork plant, has been running at reduced levels of production due to worker absenteeism, and will stop production mid-week until further notice. The facility’s 2,800 team members will be invited to come to the plant later this week for COVID-19 testing.

Tyson Fresh Meats, the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods, will resume limited operations at its pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after being idle for two weeks due to COVID-19 concerns.

High Liner Foods has temporarily suspended all production at its Portsmouth, New Hampshire, plant where it has confirmed positive COVID-19 cases. High Liner Foods is activating its COVID-19 response plan including deep cleaning, contact tracing and risk assessment. High Liner Foods will resume operations at its Portsmouth plant as soon as it is responsible to do so. In order to minimize impact to supply, the company has already started redirecting a portion of production from its Portsmouth plant to its Newport News, Virginia, and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia plants.

The latest data from research firm IRI (Information Resources Inc.) and BCG (Boston Consulting Group) for the week ending April 5, shows frozen and refrigerated food sales increasing slightly compared to the week ending March 29. Frozen food purchases rose to +34.7%, compared to the previous week's 31.3%. Dairy showed a higher jump at +29.9% compared to the previous week's +20.9%. The numbers remain significantly elevated compared to last year's sales, due to a spike in purchasing related to COVID-19 stockpiling in early March. 

Sargento Foods Inc. is donating $2 million in cheese to Wisconsin’s anti-hunger leader, Hunger Task Force and its membership organization the Hunger Relief Federation of Wisconsin. To assist families outside Wisconsin, Sargento will provide donated cheese to Feeding America, the largest hunger relief organization in the U.S. The family-owned cheese company is providing relief by donating a total of 15.8 million cheese sticks which can feed more than 1.3 million households across the U.S.

Smithfield Foods will close its Cudahy, Wisconsin, and Martin City, Missouri, facilities later this week. Its Cudahy dry sausage and bacon plant will shutter for two weeks. Its Martin City plant, which employs over 400 people and produces spiral and smoked hams, receives raw material from the company’s Sioux Falls, South Dakota facility, which is closed indefinitely. Without these raw materials, the facility cannot continue to run. Smithfield will resume operations in Sioux Falls once it receives further direction from local, state and federal officials. This will also allow the company to bring its Martin City facility back online.