COVID-19 and the U.S. meat and poultry supply chains

This paper uses data from a variety of sources to describe the changes to meat and poultry supply chains in 2020. At the beginning of 2020, cattle and hog slaughter rates were higher than in 2019, but they began to decline in April, reaching a low the week ending May 2, 2020, when slaughter for cattle and hogs was only 65 percent of that week's 2019 slaughter. Slaughter rates rebounded by June, although a backlog of animals still needed to be processed. From mid-April to mid-June 2020, the fall in slaughter rates combined with an increase in retail demand drove a large margin between wholesale meat and livestock prices. Retail purchases of meat at grocery stores surged the week ending March 15, 2020, to 75 percent above that week's 2019 meat sales. At the same time, food purchases at restaurants and other food-service establishments plummeted. High cold storage stocks of meat in early 2020 may have helped grocery retailers maintain high levels of sales during the supply disruptions in April and May 2020. Retail purchases remained higher for most remaining weeks of 2020 compared to 2019.

COVID-19 working paper: changes in regional hog slaughter during COVID-19. (COVID-19 Working Paper No. AP-095.)

This working paper describes how COVID-19 affected the pork packing industry, gives an overview of this industry, and measures changes in regional slaughter volumes in 2020. We find different effects of COVID-19 across regions. Some regions experienced a prolonged decline in hog slaughter compared with 2019, while in other regions sharp declines only lasted a few weeks. Slaughter counts in the major pork-producing regions declined for three weeks at the end of April and early May but recovered to 2019 levels by June 2020. Minor processing regions had mixed reactions to the pandemic. For instance, Region 2 (New Jersey and New York) experienced a large decline in slaughter, but, unlike major processing regions, the shock persisted throughout the year-slaughter rates were lower than 2019 levels. Overall, most regions in 2020 had increases in total slaughter compared with 2019, suggesting the industry suffered at the beginning of the pandemic but adjusted production and at least partially recovered.