Coronavirus Hong Kong: supply of fresh beef, pork to be restored next week when Covid-hit abattoir reopens
- A mass test for hundreds of workers at the Sheung Shui slaughterhouse will be conducted on Sunday, with results due the next day and operations set to resume on Wednesday
- The slaughterhouse effectively supplies 100 per cent of the city’s fresh beef and lamb, and 90 per cent of its fresh pork
Hong Kong’s local supply of fresh pork and beef is expected to be restored as soon as next Wednesday after a severe Covid-19 outbreak forced the closure of the city’s largest slaughterhouse last week.
Hui Wai-kin, head of the Pork Traders General Association, said on Thursday that mass testing for hundreds of workers at the Sheung Shui slaughterhouse would be conducted on Sunday, with results due by Monday and operations set to resume on Wednesday.
The closure of the abattoir on Saturday halted the city’s supply of fresh beef and left only a very limited amount of fresh pork on the market. In a chain reaction, many butcher stores were forced to suspend operations, and consumers rushed to buy frozen meat instead.
“We hope the normal supply of fresh pork can be provided on the morning of March 9,” Hui said on a radio show.
Referring to the scale of the outbreak at the abattoir, he noted only 20 per cent of butchers there were able to go to work. “How could they slaughter 3,000 pigs [a day]?” he added.
The abattoir’s management company, Ng Fung Hong, has called in 38 experienced butchers from mainland China to help restore operations.
The Sheung Shui facility is by far the larger of Hong Kong’s two slaughterhouses, and processes up to 5,000 pigs, 400 cows and 300 lambs every day, effectively supplying 100 per cent of the city’s fresh beef and mutton, and 90 per cent of its fresh pork.
The remaining 10 per cent comes from a slaughterhouse in Tsuen Wan, which was also forced to close on Saturday but is now operating again at limited capacity.