Dive Brief:
- Tyson said its sales fell 10% in the most recent quarter, after an outbreak of avian influenza killed 39 people in China and cut chicken sales.
- The company also warned that it was increasing its estimates of how bad the impact of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) will be on pork production during the remainder of the year.
- Investors took the two pieces of disease-related news badly. Tyson shares fell 9.9% -- the worst drop for the company's stock in five years.
Dive Insight:
Now Tyson estimates that PEDv will reduce domestic hog supplies by 4.5% -- well above the 3% reduction forecast earlier. Add in the fears of avian flu (which haven't spread to the U.S., yet), and a drop in domestic beef cattle production following drought and high feed prices, and things don't look great for the company.
But as we've seen recently, this environment is tough on lots of global meat producers.