EAST MOLINE, Ill — Area grocery stores are limiting the amount of meat customers can buy due to supply shortages as meat processing plants close due to COVID-19.
Cattlemen's Meat Market in East Moline is seeing double the amount of customers, but is having a more difficult time finding product.
"Grocery stores are running out of meat, we haven`t yet, but we are finding it harder and harder to get more product in," Cattlemen's co-owner Dan Haskins said.
"People are hoarding. They are freaking out."
Haskins says a a lot of his customers are regulars, but he's seen more new customers than usual. He said most purchases are in bulk.
"I bought a little bit of everything," customer Judy Huntley said. "I got t-bones, ribeyes, hot dogs, and roast."
Haskins says the bulk buying is because of the nation-wide meat shortage as across the country, some meat processing plants have closed because of COVID-19 outbreaks.
"Farmers are killing thousand of hogs a day, because they cant afford to feed them and they can't take them anywhere to get processed," Haskins said.
The shortage is making the price of meat go up for buyers and sellers.
"Beef has probably gone up 30%," Haskins said. "Pork 10 to 15%. Chicken is kind of stable right now."
Haskins doesn't have the same caps on purchasing products like grocery stores. He only has a limit on ground beef and ground chuck. Both, are $2 more than usual because of the shortage.
"We have to put limits on our ground beef right now to 5 pounds per customer until we can see if we buy more," Haskins said.
Haskins says beef is the most difficult to find right now.
"We are seeing boxes from packing houses in the last 2-3 weeks that we have never heard of before," he said.
Haskins also said he thinks if the price of beef keeps going up, a chicken shortage may be next.
"Beef is getting all bought up. They are going to jump over to chicken and that's going to drive the price of chicken up," Haskins said. "In one week or two, we might not have any beef to put in our display case."
Haskins says he's brought in more workers just to keep up with the increase in customers.