While the August 9 fire at the Tyson Foods beef plant in Holcomb, Kansas, has been a big disruption for the company and the greater beef industry, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said Tyson is taking great steps to minimize any negative impact on the beef sector.
The fire was a recurring topic of discussion during committee’s “Perspectives on the Livestock and Poultry Sectors” hearing on September 25.
Jennifer Houston, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, referred to the Holcomb plant as a “vital component of the beef supply chain” and said the situation “highlights the importance of both interagency cooperation, and the need for Congress to get the agencies the regulatory tools needed to address real-time issues.”
Roberts, R-Kansas, said he has been actively communicating with the personnel at the plant, which is located not far from his home base in Dodge City. He told those at the hearing what he has learned from those communications has been reassuring.
“We have been meeting with them for some time,” Roberts said. “The 3,500 employees out there are still working. They’re going to be up and running at the first of the new year. From this point until now, they’re taking every action they know how to take to make sure the market isn’t disrupted.”
Tyson Foods CEO Noel White said in early September during the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference the part of the plant most badly damaged by the fire was the electrical system and two large panel rooms, and most of the time spend repairing the building will be spent rewiring that portion of the plant.
Fortunately, White said at the time, the further processing portion of the plant was “untouched,” and the company is operating that portion of the plant and doing some further manufacturing from some of the company’s source plants and shipping products.
