US meat giant Tyson Foods is to axe at least 1,500 jobs in a bid to fight over-capacity in the beef sector.
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The company said it would end its beef slaughter operations at its facility in Emporia, Kansas. The site will still be used as a storage and distribution facility but the decision will lead to the loss of 1,500 to 2,400 jobs.
“We must make changes to our commodity business model to effectively manage through challenging market conditions,” Tyson president and CEO Dick Bond said.
“There continues to be far more beef slaughter capacity than available cattle and we believe this problem will continue to afflict the industry for the foreseeable future. We estimate the current slaughter overcapacity in the industry to be between 10,000 and 14,000 head of cattle per day.
Tyson said the size of the US cattle herd was not growing amid pressure on feed costs as more corn is used for biofuel production.
