Tyson Foods and Malayan Flour Mills Berhad (MFM) announced a partnership in which Tyson Foods will invest in the Malaysia-based company’s vertically integrated poultry business, which will add more supply flexibility for both companies. The transaction is subject to approval by the shareholders of Malayan Flour Mills Berhad, amongst others.

Butterball, one of the largest producers of turkey products in the United States, announced that it is investing a combined $8.7 million and creating a total of 360 new jobs within three years in two processing facilities in Northwest Arkansas. The expansion includes a $4.7 million investment in Ozark where the company will create 160 jobs and a $4 million investment in Huntsville where it will create 200 new jobs.

Foster Farms will close the main Livingston processing plant on Tuesday evening, September 1 and not resume operations until Monday evening, September 7.  During this downtime, the company will complete two rounds of deep cleaning and two rounds of COVID-19 testing covering all 1,400 plant employees. The testing program will ensure that all workers first reentering the plant on September 7 will be free of COVID-19. 

To date, three plants have experienced at least one confirmed positive COVID-19 case among their teams. At each of the affected plants, George's immediately implemented COVID-19 response plan actions, making sure that all health, safety, and sanitation measures were implemented, including deep cleaning procedures and notification of any coworkers who had possible close contact with these individuals. The approach, and the practices  adopted, follow the guidance issued by the CDC and utilize the hierarchy of controls.

Cooper Farms is working to provide food and resources to their fellow Ohioans. The farm and food company, located in western Ohio, has made several donations over the past month, providing over 21,000 protein-rich meals, including nearly 6,000 pounds of turkey and 27,000 dozen eggs to the Ohio Association of Food Banks in a series of deliveries from the turkey, pork and egg company. An additional 1,100 pounds of turkey burgers were donated to area groups providing socially distanced serving of hot lunches for children and meals after virtual church services.

Foster Farms is donating 400,000 servings of poultry to community hunger relief organizations throughout California to help families impacted economically by COVID-19. Recently, the family-owned company announced a donation of two million servings of protein to food banks and community organizations on the West Coast, and in Louisiana and Alabama. 

Our meat and poultry plants are experiencing varying levels of production impact, due to the planned implementation of additional worker safety precautions and worker absenteeism. For example, out of an abundance of caution, we have suspended operations at our Columbus Junction, Iowa, pork plant this week due to more than two dozen cases of COVID-19 involving team members at the facility. In an effort to minimize the impact on our overall production, we’re diverting the livestock supply originally scheduled for delivery to Columbus Junction to some of our other pork plants in the region.

Sanderson Farms announced it has implemented a temporary weekly attendance bonus for the Company’s employees in an amount equivalent to $1.00 an hour for each hour worked. The bonus payment commenced Monday, March 30, 2020, and will end Friday, June 26, 2020. Employees must have perfect attendance during the week in order to earn the bonus. The attendance bonus is applicable to all hourly positions, including new hires.

As COVID-19 continues to impact our daily lives, we are committed to taking every precaution necessary to keep you, our employees, and the communities in which we operate healthy and safe. While there are no known signs that COVID-19 is transferable through food or food packaging, we share global concerns over the spread and impact of the virus.

Butterball, LLC and the National Turkey Federation announce the passing of Kerry Curtis Doughty on March 17, 2020, following a brave battle with cancer. Doughty was the immediate past chairman of the National Turkey Federation (NTF) and the president and CEO of Butterball until his departure from the company in December 2018.