Cargill is to shut a turkey-processing site in the US in August.
The agri-food giant plans to its facility in Springdale in Arkansas at the start of the month.
In a statement, Cargill said it will shift “much of Springdale’s production” to other turkey-processing plants in Missouri and Virginia.
“This was not an easy decision to make given the impact to the approximately 1,100 people who work there and local producers. However, it is the right move to make for the future of our turkey business. Turkey remains an essential part of Cargill’s protein portfolio,” the statement read.
Cargill declined to answer Just Food’s request for comment on the reasons for the closure.
The factory produces fresh and frozen turkey products, bone-in turkey breasts and case-ready items.
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By GlobalDataEarlier this month, Cargill agreed to a financial settlement in relation to claims of price-fixing in turkey, although the company did not admit any liability.
In the case brought before the US District Court of the Northern Illinois Eastern Division, Cargill reached a “proposed” settlement with plaintiffs of $32.5m to be paid into an escrow account.
According to a court document, the so-called direct purchaser plaintiffs (DPP) claimed Cargill, and its “co-conspirators”, had “conspired to fix, maintain and inflate the price of turkey in the United States by exchanging competitively sensitive information”.
One of the co-conspirators was US meat peer Tyson Foods, which agreed a settlement with the same court for $4.6m in 2021, which was finalised the following year, the court document stated.
In December, Cargill announced a plan to cut 5% of its global workforce, which based on data in its annual report would amount to around 8,000 jobs.
The world’s largest agricultural products company said the reductions were part of its “long-term strategy” introduced this year, although Cargill did not expand on the actual reasons for the elimination of jobs.
“To strengthen Cargill’s impact, we must realign our talent and resources to align with our strategy,” the privately-owned meat processor said in a statement.
In 2024 Cargill realigned its business from five operational units into three – food enterprise, agriculture and trading, and a “specialised portfolio” – under CEO Brian Sikes.
The farm-to-fork company’s 2024 annual report put the global employee count at 160,000 and revenue at $160bn. A year earlier, revenue was $177bn. The year previous, Cargill generated revenue of $165bn in 2022.
The company operates in 70 countries, serving as a supplier to retail, foodservice and B2B customers. On the food side, the Minnesota-based company is a beef and poultry producer but is also present in eggs and plant-based proteins.
It is a major supplier of cage-free eggs in the US to fast-food chain McDonald’s and also supplies cocoa to KitKat maker Nestlé.
