(Bloomberg) -- Tyson Foods Inc. is expanding its global protein production capacity and investing over $1.3 billion in automation to meet soaring demand for meat in the pandemic era.
The biggest American meat company by sales is building six new chicken plants in Asia, part of its plan to expand global capacity by 2% capacity over the next two years. The owner of Hillshire Farm and Ball Park hot dogs is also adding a Texas bacon plant and additional beef and pork retail output in South Carolina and Utah, the company said Thursday during its annual presentation for investors.
A growing world population, especially in Asia, is boosting demand for meat and poultry as well as plant-based protein. That’s incentivizing meat companies to expand and capture new opportunities in the market. The demand, combined with shipping and logistics headwinds caused by Covid-19, has made meat a driver of inflation that has global food prices around a decade high.
Tyson said in the presentation that the planned investment in automation over the next three years is to increase yields and reduce labor costs. Tight labor markets are contributing to higher costs for meat companies, so automation will take over roles formerly done by human workers, the company said.
Meat production is shifting geographically. Between 2020 and 2030, 92% of protein growth will come outside of North America, with 64% of that in Asia, according to Tyson.
The Springdale, Arkansas, company’s expansion will raise overall protein capacity by over 1.3 billion pounds from current levels of about 28 billion pounds.
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