060225 More Jobs Fleeing Beef IndustryFebruary 18, 2006Greeley, CO - Reeling from Japan’s ban on beef imports along with five-year highs in cattle prices, Swift & Co. said it will eliminate one of two shifts and lay off 300 people at a Colorado beef processing plant. The company also announced an unspecified investment in the plant to introduce new processing equipment for value-added products and to upgrade production lines. The Greeley company is one of the nation’s largest meatpackers. Swift operates 10 beef, pork and lamb plants in the U.S., including one in Grand Island, and has other plants in Australia. The layoffs will happen in April. Earlier this week, the Agriculture Department announced it was prohibiting the Swift meatpacking plant in Grand Island from shipping beef to Japan. The department said the plant’s beef met all the rules for exporting to Japan, but its procedures did not. The Grand Island plant chose cattle suppliers without getting the approval of its corporate headquarters, a violation of export rules that turned up in a routine audit this week, the department said. Japan banned American beef after the U.S. confirmed its first case of mad cow disease in December 2003. Japan had only recently reopened its market before it banned imports again when banned skeletal material got through U.S. export oversight. Company spokesman Sean McHugh said the loss of Japan’s $1.5 billion market for U.S. beef has driven down profitability for the entire industry. Swift competitor Tyson Foods Inc. announced it would cut 1,665 jobs as it closes plants in Norfolk and West Point, Neb. Swift last year cut back production at its Grand Island and has also closed another in Idaho. The announcement comes a little more than year after the company laid off 700 employees at the Greeley plant. All 700 were offered other positions within the company; 400 accepted. The company said its investment and consolidation at Greeley would “temporarily displace” the workers.
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