Virginia-based pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc. has seen some "deterioration" in sales since the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus, the company's top executive said today.
"That is our biggest concern today -- the economic impact of people shying away from eating our product out of fear," C. Larry Pope, Smithfield's president and chief executive officer, said in a telephone interview.
Retail and export sales have been hurt, Pope said, though he believes public fears are easing now.
The Smithfield-based company has been on a media campaign to reassure the public that pork is safe to eat since the outbreak of the so-called "swine flu," which Pope said is an inaccurate name because the virus is passed from human to human.
Public health authorities from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to the World Health Organization have said there is no danger of contracting the flu virus from eating pork.
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