June 12, 2022
Largest Pork Company in the US Shuts Down California Plant Due to High Costs.
“Food processing corporation Smithfield Foods will shut down its Vernon, California, plant and scale back operations in California, Utah and Arizona, the company announced Friday.
Smithfield ‘will cease all harvest and processing operations in Vernon, California in early 2023 and, at the same time, align its hog production system by reducing its sow herd in its Western region,’ the company said in a Friday news release.
‘Smithfield is taking these steps due to the escalating cost of doing business in California,’ the company said.
‘It’s increasingly challenging to operate efficiently there,’ Smithfield Foods spokesperson Jim Monroe told the Wall Street Journal.
‘We’re striving to keep costs down and keep food affordable.’
Owned by Hong-Kong-based conglomerate WH Group, Smithfield is the largest pork processor in the country by volume.”
