Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has joined US Senator Josh Hawley in pressing Tyson Foods Inc., the biggest US poultry producer, to sell two Missouri plants rather than close them.

“Closure will have ripple effects that will harm more than just the individuals who would lose their factory jobs,” Bailey said Tuesday in a letter to Tyson Chief Executive Officer Donnie King.

Tyson said in August that it planned to close the two plants, located in the towns of Dexter and Noel, as well as one facility in Arkansas and another in Indiana following a strategic review and amid a glut in the chicken market. The closures were expected in the first two quarters of Tyson’s fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Bailey noted in the letter that Dexter has had a poultry plant since the 1890s. “Doing everything in your power to find a buyer who will keep these critical factories open is simply the right thing to do,” he said. “How can a restaurant or grocery store in a town of 2,000 people expect to stay open when 1,500 people lose their jobs?”

Tyson didn’t immediately respond to questions about its plans for the facilities. Hawley, a Republican who represents Missouri, said last month on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that Tyson is willing sell the plants.

--With assistance from Gerson Freitas Jr. and Shruti Date Singh.