Olymel's hog slaughter and cutting plant at Yamachiche, Quebec reopened today.

The plant has been closed since March 29, after nine employees tested positive for COVID-19.

Meantime, a major U.S. pork production facility has been shut down due to an outbreak of COVID-19 among its employees.

Smithfield Foods has announced that its Sioux Falls, South Dakota facility will remain closed until further notice.

Tyler Fulton is the Director of Risk Management with Hams Marketing Services.

"I think it's safe to say that there's going to have to be some type of rationing that happens," he said. "Producers will have to hold hogs back. If they can get them booked into a different plant, then that's what they'll do but there will be large numbers that will be put into positions where they're trying to hold supplies but their barns simply cannot stop producing."

The Smithfield plant is one of the largest in the U.S., representing four to five percent of U.S. pork production.

"We've been running hog slaughter about five percent higher than year-ago levels, so far this year, which is a big increase and what that means is that we've brought the supply of hogs higher, and we're relatively close to the total ability to be able to slaughter those hogs and so with a plant that represents four to five percent of the total U.S. slaughter, for it to be down for an indefinite period of time, it brings a tonne of uncertainty," added Fulton. "It displaces a tonne of hogs that would normally flow into that plant and send them elsewhere."

He notes if more plants continue to close, there could be a shortage of certain cuts of meat in the U.S.