Jim Perdue, Chairman and advertising spokesman of Perdue Farms joins On The Move to discuss the impact the coronavirus has had on the company.

Video Transcript

- We often take for granted the men and women who keep us fed in the United States. But now more than ever, they are crucial to helping us get through this crisis. And joining us now to do that is Jim Perdue, the Purdue Farms chairman, who has told us, you are not only the largest supplier of organic chicken in the US, but you are taking steps to make sure that the supply of chicken continues. Can you bring us up to speed on that, Mr. Perdue?

JIM PERDUE: Yes, we've been operating six days a week in most of our operations. And we're doing-- one thing-- you know, the food service sector is down significantly. So we've we're only about 30% or 40% food service. So we're converting a lot of that product into the supermarket channel, along with the 60% to 70% that we already were. So we're doing everything we can to try to meet the demand that has been created.

- Jim, you know, we've seen the panic buying at some of these grocery stores. Certainly, there's been concern about a supply lasting. And essential services like yourself have said, you know, we do have the supply. We're going to keep going around the clock care to meet the demand. And yet I have to wonder about the workers, and how comfortable they feel. You made some headlines-- or I think one of your plants in Georgia made some headlines earlier this week, when you had the workers walk off, saying that we just don't feel comfortable operating in this environment. How are you balancing that demand that you're seeing nationally, but also the concerns from the workers themselves, who are having to basically go to work every day with concerns about potentially contracting the virus?

JIM PERDUE: Well, you know, our goals are set around people, products, planet, and profitability. And people always comes first. And the health of their workers is number one in our mind. The situation in Georgia is totally understandable. There's a lot of fear, I think, out there. Communication is important.

We had a couple of dozen out of 600 folks that were concerned. We talked to them. They all but I think two or three have returned to work that day. And, but we're doing a lot of things to reassure our associates that, number one, the job that they're doing is critically important at this time. But more importantly, that they are safe. So things like, if you're sick, or somebody is sick in your family, please stay at home. Don't come to work.

We're rolling out a temperature testing in all of our plants, So. That before they go on, go to the workstations, we know whether they have a fever or not. And if so, we have a procedure in place to send them to our wellness centers. All of our facilities have wellness centers, staffed by doctors from the local community, to do with those issues.

So a lot of what we're doing right now is to make sure they feel comfortable. In addition, we've increased their pay for a temporary time period. Where our fiscal year ends March 31. We pay an associate bonus, profit sharing bonus, to all of our hourly workers in our plants. And that we're paying that in April instead of normal May, end of May time period.

And finally, of the most important things they've asked us for is food. So we're providing chicken to all of our associates, because grocery shopping is something they don't have as much time to do right now.

JULIE HYMAN: Jim, this Julie Hyman here. I want to ask a little bit more about the supply chain as well. When you're talking chicken, I guess the time to raise a chicken is lower than to raise a steer, for example, or some other parts of the food chain. So how nimble can you be in expanding your supply? What is sort of the life size cycle that we're looking at for chickens? And how much more can you add on at short notice like this?

JIM PERDUE: Yeah, we're definitely more nimble than pork or beef, because we have a better 49 day growing period of time, when they are from the baby chicken until we harvest them in the plant. And egg supply is plentiful. Our limitation, of course, is each player can only run a certain number of chickens, based on the USDA protocol for the line speed in that plant.

So right now, we're running those plants full. But we can't expand beyond what we're running, unless we run extra days, which we're running six days versus a normal five days a week. So you know, I think we and the rest of the industry, are doing everything we can do to make sure there is a supply of chicken in the market.

- Mr. Perdue, I think a lot of us are grateful that there are people like you who know what they're doing, who are sharing what's happening with us, as opposed to heads of state, who just bark orders. But I have to ask you, if the federal government-- whether it's the FDA or someone from the Ag department has reached out to you about what might be coming down the pike. Mr. Perdue?

JIM PERDUE: What might be coming down the pike as far as what?

- As far as whether the government is going to need more from you, or if they're going to be diverting supply to harder hit areas that might be having difficulty getting deliveries?

JIM PERDUE: Yeah, we haven't heard, we haven't heard any directives in that way. The one thing we heard is that from a food service standpoint, the labeling on food service restaurant, chicken, is different than the supermarket. And they have waived the requirements, so that we can divert product from what was going to food service in, going into supermarkets. But other than that, we have not heard any directives beyond that.

- All right. Jim Perdue is the chairman of Perdue Farms. And I think it's an understatement to say that 330 million Americans are grateful that your men and women are keeping us fed. But thank you sir, and we appreciate your being here on Yahoo Finance.