"They're hoping they still have a job." CLAIM: Smithfield Foods was sold recently to China. No Smithfield products come from animals raised, processed, or packaged in China. Smithfield Foods was sold to Chinese pork giant WH Group in 2013. SMITHFIELD, Virginia, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Smithfield Foods' slaughterhouse in Virginia used to carve up pork for American sandwiches and holiday dinners.
Smithfield Foods' slaughterhouse in Virginia used to carve up pork for American sandwiches and holiday dinners.
Smithfield Foods does not import any products from China to the U.S. “It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running.These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers.”This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.Here’s more information on Facebook’s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536
The hogs will still be raised in the U.S., but slaughtered and packaged for sale in China before being sent back here. THE FACTS: Social media users began resharing the false claim following the closure of a Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in South Dakota Sunday due to hundreds of employees testing positive for coronavirus.
But workers now box up pig carcasses to ship to China, according to employees, local officials and industry sources.The transformation at the Smithfield, Virginia, plant shows how the global meat industry is adapting to profit from African swine fever, a fatal pig disease that has killed millions of hogs in China and turned the world's top pork consumer into a major meat importer.Bought by China's WH Group Ltd six years ago for $4.7 billion, Smithfield Foods has retooled U.S. processing operations to direct meat to China, which produced half the world's pork before swine fever decimated the industry.The world's biggest pork processor operates a white, box-shaped meat plant in Smithfield, Virginia, home to 8,000 as well as the company's headquarters and a wider tourist economy built on its famous hams, bacon and sausages.Since late spring, pigs trucked to the plant have been slaughtered and sliced into thirds for shipment to China, where Chinese workers process the carcasses further, company employees and industry sources told Reuters. They can now be shipped there, but when they come back all that needs to be labeled is that they WERE RAISED IN THE USA.”Other specific claims in the post included that fish on fish farms are fed raw sewage and raised in filthy conditions where food colorings and some flavorings are added and then sent to Canada and the U.S. “They ship it to you to buy and poison your families and friends,” the post alleges.A message to the Facebook user who shared the information was not returned.The post also urges people to stay away from packages stating “prepared for,” “packaged by” or “imported by” and suggests that other food products like fruit cups, Steinfeld’s Pickles and canned mushrooms are not safe.Smithfield Foods is a Virginia-based company and is the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer; it produces a variety of brand name meats and partnered with a Chinese company long before the COVID-19 pandemic.In 2013, shareholders of Smithfield Foods voted to approve a partnership with Shuanghui International Holdings Limited, a private company based in Hong Kong that holds a majority of shares in China’s largest meat processor, Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co. Ltd.Forbes magazine reported that a growing demand due to large populations, rising production costs and repeated concerns about quality “formed the basis of Shuanghui International’s quest to acquire the North American meat producer.”Forbes also reported the Chinese acquisition of Smithfield does not mean that Americans will be eating Chinese cuts.
“The same with many chickens. “Shuanghui isn’t looking to offload Chinese pork in Los Angeles. "There were departments that were completely eliminated or erased or remodeled," the person said.Tyson Foods Inc and JBS USA are also maneuvering to increase sales by stopping the use of the growth drug ractopamine, which is banned by China.China is importing U.S. hog carcasses because it needs the entire animal, rather than specific parts, market analysts said. pork producers say China's losses from the disease have created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for sales.After shifting operations, Smithfield Foods can process pigs more quickly in Virginia because employees are doing less work on each carcass, according to the plant worker. Smithfield, owned by Chinese conglomerate WH Group (0288.HK), was not immediately available for comment. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture terminated a $240,000 purchase contract with Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods that had been awarded under the Trump administration’s agricultural trade bailout program, a move taken at the company’s request, a department spokesman told Reuters on Friday. Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Leslie Adler FILE PHOTO - Some of the products of Smithfield Foods are displayed in front of at a news conference on WH Group's IPO in Hong Kong April 14, 2014.