Agriculture troubles emerge
Parts of agriculture’s supply chain are showing signs of distress, with the closing or downsizing of several animal processing facilities.
The cracks began when one of the Corridor’s largest hog farmers, JWV Pork, 2504 Quince Ave., Washington, Iowa, laid off 65 employees and closed its operations Jan. 1. That followed months of financial distress when it defaulted on loans totaling $38.8 million, according to an article in the CBJ.
JWV Pork was established in 1980 by Jerome and Heidi Vittetoe and employed more than 80 people, according to its website. It contracted with 50 growers throughout southeast Iowa to produce over 250,000 pigs per year. The company is listed as a major employer in Washington County, according to the county’s website.
And this year is not starting off well.
The Tyson Foods plant located in Perry, Iowa announced recently that it will close in June. It is the largest employer of this central Iowa city with nearly 1,300 workers who will lose their jobs after the closure.
The move comes after the Arkansas-based company closed two chicken plants and announced job cuts last year and said four other plants were expected to cease operations within the first half of fiscal 2024, with related charges expected to cost the company $300 million to $400 million.
And just last week, West Liberty Foods, one of the largest private employers in the Corridor, announced that it will lay off 260 workers at its turkey processing plant beginning April 29, according to news reports.
The report stated that the plant is discontinuing its ready-to-eat slicing operation and its second shift fabrication unit.
Listen to Phil Jasper
The Iowa Business Council’s annual Competitive Dashboard report should be a must read for any business leader, and especially state officials, but we’re uncertain its main message of needing more workers and more Iowans is getting across to those state officials.
“Workforce continues to be the limiting factor in terms of the potential of our economy,” said Phil Jasper, IBC chair and president of Raytheon, one of the state’s largest employers, in the report. “We’re effectively tapped out on our workforce. While Iowa maintains a top six position in labor force participation rate (nationally), it has not effectively changed from last year. The good news is that Iowa continues to outpace the national average on its labor force participation rate. But (pairing) that participation rate with our very low unemployment rate continues to feed the urgency of retaining more population and, honestly, recruiting new Iowans into our state.”
When Mr. Jasper comments, people should listen. He is a native of Lamont, Iowa, and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Business Administration from Iowa State University, and is now leading one of the largest employers in the world. Raytheon has 127,400 employees.
