Local grocery stores, restaurants feel impact of meat shortage

SIKESTON — Those looking for meat at the grocery story or those trying to purchase their favorite hamburger may have come up empty lately.

As several U.S. production plants have been temporarily shuttered in the last two weeks due to workers getting sick from the coronavirus, the country is seeing a meat shortage.

Jayson Lusk, head of the department of agricultural economics at Purdue University, said U.S. beef and pork processing capacity was down 40% from last year.

Locally, grocery stores are beginning to feel the pinch. When contacted Friday, an employee at Food Giant in Sikeston said they were seeing shortages in some meat while nationwide chains like Costco, Sam’s Club, Hy-Vee and Kroger are limiting purchases of meat to avoid panic buying. Kroger Co. said it wants to ensure buyers have a broad assortment.

“There is plenty of protein in the supply chain,” Kroger said in a statement.

Ruler Foods in Sikeston, which is part of the Kroger brand, has seen a shortage on some meat.

“We’ve been having issues with chicken,” said Mallory Baker of Ruler Foods said Friday afternoon. “We are limiting ground beef and pork to three per variety.”

Local restaurants are also beginning to feel the impact.

Hector Lemus, manager of La Ruleta in Sikeston, said he was told by his supplier, Sysco, they may not have another beef shipment for a week to 10 days.

“We are not a steak house by any means but half of our sales are in beef as we are accustomed to ask our customer ‘chicken or beef’ when taking their orders,” Lemus said. “With everything going on due to COVID-19 and having to adapt on a daily basis, this is just another challenge for us and we just hope that our customers understand if we are short on beef.”

Nationwide, Wendy’s restaurants have been pulling some burgers off its menus and just over 1,000 Wendy’s restaurants – or nearly 20% – had no beef items available on their online menus Monday night, according to an analysis by Stephens Inc., an investment bank.

“We’ve had to limit some things on our menu and advertise more chicken,” said Natalie Johnson, manager of Wendy’s in Sikeston. “We’re not selling doubles or triples or our $5 biggie bags and we are selling more chicken nuggets.”

All involved hope the shortage is short-lived.

Some meatpacking plants are coming back online after President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week requiring them to stay open. But until they’re back at full capacity, consumers will likely see some shortages and higher prices for beef and pork, Lusk said. Poultry production has also been impacted, but to a lesser degree.

Meat producer Tyson Foods Inc. said it’s working hard to get its plants back up safely.

“It’s very difficult to speculate on how challenges to the food supply will evolve in the coming weeks, but we are doing our best to maximize our production to meet demand,” the company said in a statement.