This Company Is Rescuing Chipotle From Its Pork Crisis

The company stopped serving pork at a third of its restaurants this week after discovering animal treatment violations by one its meat suppliers.

Now another supplier is stepping in to save the day.

Niman Ranch, Chipotle's primary pork supplier, increased its pork shipments to Chipotle this week to address the problem.

"We were able to increase supply to Chipotle by 15% to 20% starting this week and we should be able to do that moving forward," Niman Ranch Executive Vice President Jeff Tripician told Business Insider in a phone interview.

Niman Ranch is dipping into its pork reserves to increase shipments in the short-term.

"We put a small amount [of pork] aside for holidays or special events," Tripician said.

But that's not going to completely plug the gap.

Niman Ranch and Chipotle are also discussing using different cuts of meat for the carnitas, both companies confirmed. Tripician couldn't say which cuts could be used, because the carnitas recipe is proprietary.