The former XL beef-packing plant at Brooks, Alta., is scaling back slaughter and processing after 67 workers tested positive for COVID-19.
It’s another blow to Alberta’s beef farmers who lost the Cargill plant at High River early this week due to COVID-19.
It’s not clear when Cargill will re-open. The company is re-opening a plant in Pennsylvania that closed about two weeks ago because of COVID-19.
JBS USA now owns the former XL plant. It shut down the much larger plant at Greeley, Colo., recently because of hundreds of cases of COVID-19 among its workforce of several thousand.
The combination of COVID-19 issues at Alberta’s two beef plants has reduced national cattle slaughter capacity by more than 40 per cent.
