- Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN), the biggest U.S. meat company by sales, currently relies on about 122K workers to churn out about 20% of chicken, beef and pork produced in the U.S.
- That's changing after the coronavirus pandemic showed supply chain vulnerabilities. The company is now pushing further into robotics, developing an automated deboning system destined to handle some of the roughly 39M chickens it processes each week.
- At Pilgrim's Pride (NASDAQ:PPC), the second largest U.S. chicken processor, deboning machines now trail humans by only 1% to 1.5%, in terms of meat yield per chicken.
- "Everybody's thinking about automation, and it's going to increase," said Decker Walker, a managing director with Boston Consulting Group, who works with meatpackers.
- Related: JEF, HRL, SAFM, ALCO, SYY, COW, UBC, KHC, NATH, CAG, COST, KR, SFM, BRFS, PPC, BWLD, OTCQX:JBSAY, OTCPK:NSRGY