Belgian West meat remains open for the time being

The Belgian slaughterhouse Westvlees is allowed to continue its work despite an outbreak of the corona virus among its staff. However, extra measures are being taken and the company is going to test all employees preventively. In the meantime, a slaughterhouse is being closed in Ireland and meat concern JBS is offering new jobs in Brazil.

Last weekend, the number of infections in Belgian West meat rose to 67, compared to 18 at the beginning of August. Of the 62 employees who were tested on Friday, 7 employees had the virus. During the crisis meeting last Friday, in which the governor of the province of West Flanders and mayors were present, no one was in favor of the decision to close the company as a precaution.

The virus was detected on the cutting department of West meat and this has now been closed, all employees who were active there are in quarantine. According to Westvlees, no other departments are infected and the affected department is isolated from the other departments. "The buildings are spread over a 14-hectare site and have separate entrances. In principle, people from different departments do not come into contact with each other. A complete closure, also of the departments without infections, is currently not an issue, it states. a product manager of Westvlees."

Extra measures
Employees who are currently in mandatory quarantine must be strictly checked whether they actually comply with the quarantine requirements. All employees will also be tested this week and staff members are allowed to carpool with a maximum of 2 people. Rooms that are not cooled will be provided with extra ventilation. If it turns out that the virus also spreads to the other departments, a complete closure is still an option.

Irish slaughterhouse to close
In Ireland, however, the production of a slaughterhouse that processes pork is being shut down. It concerns the company Brady's Ham located in Kildare, a place in the eastern county of County Kildare. The company's operations have been shut down after the number of infections among employees passed 80. During the closure, all employees, out of a total of 300, will be tested to map the full extent of the outbreak.

Brazil situation
The corona virus has also caused high levels of emotion in the meat sector in Brazil. In fact, data shows that the number of infections among staff at the Brazilian slaughterhouse was responsible for 29% of the total infections at slaughterhouses in the state of Panama. The infections there have risen to 1.138 confirmed cases, according to the most recent data up to and including 24 July. Brazilian meat giant JBS also registered 88 cases of infection at locations in Panama.

While JBS struggles with infection cases among employees, the meat company is hiring another 5.200 new employees in Brazil. This in an effort to increase output for its export base. Most of the new features will serve to modernize production. The jobs will be distributed across locations in 16 different Brazilian states.

Chanti Oussoren

Editor at Boerenbusiness who studies the dairy, pig (meat) and feed markets.

c.oussoren@boerenbusiness. Nl

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