Around 2 million chickens will be slaughtered at farms in Delaware and Maryland without them ever making it to the local markets.

The reason behind this is staff shortages at food production companies during the coronavirus crisis in the US.

A letter from Allen Harim Foods to growers explained that the company is no longer able to harvest the “amount of birds needed daily or weekly to maintain target weights and ages.”

The Allen Harim Foods said they have slowed down setting and hatching eggs.

The impact won’t be seen for another 6 weeks, said Michele Minton, the director of live operations, in a letter.

The company started to depopulating flocks in the field, which is an industry term for killing the animals without sending them to market, on April 10.

Farmers growing the chickens will be compensated for the loss, confirmed Minton.

Holly Porter, the poultry industry executive director of Delaware, said that the “impact of COVID-19 on the US chicken industry is becoming more apparent as the disease continues to spread throughout the United States.”

Processing plants in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia have been heavily affected by the coronavirus, which has caused staff shortages.

Porter has also confirmed that a company in Delmarva is turning to depopulate flocks in the field during the coronavirus crisis.

It is still unclear how the companies are going to kill chickens.

Talking about this concern, Porter said that the companies are going to use “approved, humane methods — the same methods approved for depopulation in cases of infectious avian disease.”