Hormel Foods’ second quarter profits topped Wall Street’s expectations and its stock jumped 4 percent Wednesday, but uncertainty persists over lethal bird flu — which is hammering the company’s turkey business.
Jeffrey Ettinger, Hormel’s CEO, said Wednesday he expects bird flu to ease during the warm summer months but called the fall a “wild card.” The company’s Jennie-O turkey division is “significantly challenged,” he said, and its profit margins will fall in the next six months.
Jennie-O, the nation’s second largest turkey processor, relies on Minnesota and Wisconsin for its supply, and both states have been hit hard by the highly pathogenic H5N2 virus. It has killed 8 million turkeys and chickens in Minnesota alone. Fifty-five farms that supply Jennie-O have been stricken, which should reduce the company’s overall turkey sales by about 15 percent in the next two quarters.
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