As coronavirus outbreaks among workers closed several Canadian meat plants, Henry Mizrahi saw a different future for Lesters Foods, the hot dog factory he runs in Montreal.
Olymel employees work in one of the companyÕs Quebec hog-slaughtering plants in Yamachiche, Quebec, Canada in July 2020. Picture taken in July 2020. Courtesy of Olymel/Handout via REUTERS
The United States, Canada and Brazil, all major meat producers and exporters, have adopted technology at a slower pace than Northern Europe or Japan and lagged other industrial factories in automating their operations. The concentration of COVID-19 outbreaks in the meatpacking industry in the Americas partly reflected its greater reliance on elbow-to-elbow working conditions.
Meat plants account for just $1 billion in global annual sales of automation supplies and services, distributor Cantrell Gainco said, a sliver of the estimated $215 billion business of industrial automation, according to advisory firm ROBO Global. But North American packer interest is climbing. Plans called for spending 20 million reais annually on automation, but that program may now get a 5% annual bump, not including one-off pricey equipment purchases like robots, said Claudecir dos Santos, Frimesa’s research and innovation manager. The goal is to automate areas where employees cluster together, he said.
Tyson, the highest-selling U.S. meat company, is making a bigger automation push because of the pandemic, said director of engineering Doug Foreman. “There’s a heightened sense of urgency, no doubt about it,” he said. “The outbreaks of corona will put extra spice into the need for automation because the fewer people you have, the less likely you are to suffer from these outbreaks,” said Henrik Andersen, chief commercial officer at Denmark-based Frontmatec, producer of automation equipment for the food industry.Greater automation raises suspicions, however, among labor groups.
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