Agricultural Minister weighs in on whether the JBS hack will drive up the price of red meat

The world’s largest meat processing company, JBS Foods, fell victim to a cyber attack which forced production to grind to a halt on Monday.

The hack, which targeted the United States arm of the company, also affected Australia’s 47 JBS facilities, which run on the same system at the US facilities.

The Rumour File broke the news of the shutdown on Monday morning.

Federal Agricultural Minister David Littleproud says some operations have restarted.

“As of today there’s limited operations in Victoria and NSW at their facilities,” he told Dee Dee.

“We’re hoping tomorrow Queensland will start.”

JBS processes about 26 per cent of red meat in Australia, as well as some pork.

But the hack is unlikely to drive up domestic red meat prices.

“We think that there’s little chance of their being impacts at the checkout,” Mr Littleproud said.

“Obviously the longer and the more protracted … the more pressure it puts on. But we’re confident … we’ll be able to get capacity up and going some time in the near future.”

Press PLAY below to hear Mr Littleproud talk more about the JBS hack