“2020 was the year that no one saw coming,” said Jonathan Amidei, chief operating officer of Swaggerty Sausage Co. Inc.
It was a sentiment that many meat and poultry processors share. The industry, in a normal year, is often fraught with pitfalls – labor shortages, raw material supplies, government regulations, changing consumer tastes. All of those issues existed in 2020. Add to that a global pandemic that killed more than 400,000 Americans, crippled the foodservice industry and changed the way of life of everyone, and you are left with the most challenging business environment in the recent history of the meat industry.