More corona infections at Tönnies in Weissenfels

The corona crisis is hitting the meat sector hard. Since the start of the crisis, slaughterhouses have been under a magnifying glass when it comes to the number of infections among staff. The tide has not turned yet, as it turns out at Tönnies in Weißenfels, Germany, where the number of infections is rising again.

Meat concern Tönnies, like a number of other slaughterhouses, suffered from many infections among employees during the first corona wave. The company cannot escape this in the second wave either. 

At the beginning of October, a bright spot came when the Weidemark location in Sögel started work partly resumed thanks to a new hygiene protocol. It now appears that things are going wrong at the location in Weißenfels in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The contamination rate is high in this region, which is why Tönnies increased the test frequency. In the past 2 weeks, 170 employees have tested positive and are housed in a separate quarantine facility. In total, approximately 2.200 people work at the Weißenfels site.

slaughter capacity
According to the most recent information, a temporary closure is not yet in sight. Under optimal conditions, up to 20.000 pigs can be slaughtered per day in Weißenfels, and the sector cannot afford to lose this slaughter capacity at the moment. The German oversupply of pigs stands at hundreds of thousands of animals and the sales opportunities are limited.

Chanti Oussoren

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

c.oussoren@boerenbusiness. Nl

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