U.S. Beef Output May Take Months to Recover, National Says
- Meatpacker has fewer people on production lines, CEO says
- Owner Marfrig shares jump after quarterly earnings growth
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American meat lovers probably will continue to pay higher-than-normal prices for beef as measures to mitigate the coronavirus risk keep U.S. plants below capacity for months.
That’s according to Tim Klein, who heads National Beef Packing Co., a major U.S. producer owned by Brazil’s Marfrig Global Foods SA. National Beef is now running at 85% capacity, compared with 100% a year ago and the current industry rate of 75%, he said Monday in a telephone interview.