Updated June 27, 2020, 10:02 a.m.
The economic consequences of the Corona outbreak at the meat processor Tönnies in its main plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück are far-reaching. Companies in other federal states are now also feeling the effects of the production stop.
Of the Corona outbreak at meat processor Tönnies Bavarian farmers are also worried in North Rhine-Westphalia. Above all, the temporary stopping of slaughtering in the Tönnies locations in Kempten and Bamberg is noticeable and leads to a chain reaction that affects the calf breeders.
Other companies take over slaughterings
“The bulls move out of the stables more slowly, the whole market is thereby slowed down somewhere,” said the managing director of the Allgäu Herdbuchgesellschaft, Thomas Bechteler. This also limits the demand for calves for fattening at the moment. At a company like Tönnies that slaughters huge amounts, it has an impact from one week to the other.
In the Allgäu, the Tönnies location in Kempten is one of the most important companies. “We usually slaughter a quarter of our cattle there,” said Berthold Kirchmaier, managing director of the Allgäu slaughterhouse producer group. So far, however, the problem has been solved for the 5,000 companies in the community: “We are bringing the animals to Buchloe instead,” says Kirchmaier.
The majority of the 600 to 700 cattle per week are slaughtered there anyway. When operating the Vion Germany company, it is said that additional slaughterings are carried out “as far as possible”.
Many small businesses have closed
So now it depends on when the slaughterhouses open again. At Tönnies, no one was initially able to be reached. “It is a problem if the situation remains like this for longer,” said a spokesman for the Bavarian Farmers’ Association.
But he also emphasized: “You don’t have to depend on a few days or so.” The spokesman also referred to the possibility of taking the animals to other slaughterhouses. “There is still capacity.”
One reason that a corona outbreak in North Rhine-Westphalia Shock waves can send as far as Bavaria, are the structures with ever larger slaughterhouses. These have grown over decades, also due to stricter standards, as Bechteler from the herd book company said.
Many small businesses have closed. “If you want to build that up again today, you need enormous investments,” he emphasized. “We observe a tendency of the companies towards regional marketing”, but this still exists “more in the head than in reality”. (mf / dpa)
The corona virus was able to spread unnoticed for a long time in a slaughterhouse of the meat producer Tönnies in the district of Gütersloh. Could Tönnies be asked to checkout now?
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