Meat + Poultry - October 2004 - 11

Pilgrim's Pride sells Hinton plant
Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Pittsburg, Texas, announced this past month
the sale of its Hinton, Va., turkey facility and associated feed mill in
Broadway, Va., to the Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative, Inc. The
sale is the final part of Pilgrim's Pride's previously announced turkey
division restructuring. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Pilgrim's Pride executives said this past April that challenging turkey industry conditions prompted its move to more cost-effective operations and a shift to value-added, turkey products. Since that time,
the company has introduced a Signature turkey line, the industry's
first premium line of butter-basted turkey products. The products
are produced at the Pilgrim's Pride facility in New Oxford, Pa. The
company said its turkey product mix is now two-thirds value-added
and one-third branded fresh and frozen products, consistent with its
broader strategies for both turkey and chicken.

Cargill acquires Brazilian
processor
Officials with Minneapolis-based Cargill, Inc., have agreed to purchase a majority share of Seara Alimentos SA, a branded poultry
and pork processor based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Seara, a subsidiary of Mutual Investment Ltd., has nine plants in Brazil, where it processes ham, sausage, frankfurters and bologna, with offices in Argentina, Holland and Singapore. The company employs about
14,500 people. Once the deal is completed, Cargill will have customers
in more than 70 countries. However, Cargill has made it clear throughout the negotiations that a discovery of avian influenza in Brazil would
be a deal breaker and a legal reason to cancel the acquisition.
"(Seara) customers will benefit from increased access to consistently high quality poultry and pork products produced from multiple
locations around the world," says Julio Cardoso, Seara's president.
"Seara will have stronger growth prospects by being a part of Cargill's global network."

Crisis management tool kit
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Denver, has developed
a crisis management "tool kit" to aid producers and processors in
the event of another incidence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The kit contains crisis planning information and is being distributed
to state beef associations.
The kit includes guidelines for building an inclusive crisis preparedness team; checklists and templates for executing an effective
state response; information about managing on-site crisis response;
instructions for planning and executing media conferences and teleconferences; and a checklist for ensuring steps are implemented the
first day of a crisis.
"This is a tool that states will find helpful in ensuring they are prepared should the worst happen," says Bob Rolston, a beef producer
from Englewood, Colo., and chairman of N.C.B.A.'s joint public opinion and issues management group. "Maintaining consumer confidence in our product is critical, and along with the safety measures
we've put in place, good communications plans are an important element in the mix."

OCTOBER 2004

Beef and pork give way to
chicken and fish
Chicken and fish are carving out a larger place on America's dinner plates at the expense of cattle and pigs. Purdue Univ. researchers studying 30 years of U.S. Dept. of Agriculture consumption data
found that a combination of demographic, health and ease-of-preparation factors led to increased consumption of poultry and fish in the U.S.
Meanwhile, consumption of beef and pork either dipped or stagnated.
"We looked at U.S.D.A. per-capita consumption data from 1970
to 1999, and beef consumption decreased while pork consumption
stayed about the same," said Christiane Schroeter, a Purdue agricultural economics graduate student. "Poultry had a huge increase in
consumption, and there also was a slight increase in fish consumption. There's definitely been a change in the overall pattern."
Before the mid-1980s, beef
and pork were Nos. 1 and 2 in
per-capita consumption among
the four meat groups. By the
late 1980s, poultry passed
pork in consumer demand and,
by the end of the 20th century,
poultry consumption had nearly pulled even with beef. Fish
consumption, while a distant
fourth, gradually rose throughout the 30-year study period.
The Purdue researchers
concluded that changes in
the American diet and greater
numbers of women in the work
force were the primary forces behind the gains made by poultry and
fish. The introduction of microwavable foods and the addition of poultry and fish on fast-food restaurant menus also contributed.
"We surmise from this data that with more women in the work
force, as opposed to 30 or 40 years ago, there is no adult at home
with the kids. When the children come home from school the microwave is an appliance that they are allowed to use to prepare food. As
it turns out, either because of the form of the product or because the
marketers of fish and poultry have been more successful in making
their products microwavable, those two products tend to benefit, relative to pork and beef," said Schroeter.
Total U.S. per-capita meat consumption grew 9.3 percent from
1970 to 1999. In that time span, poultry consumption nearly doubled,
to about 67 pounds per person. Consumer demand for fish increased
a third, to about 15 pounds per person.
Per capita beef consumption fell from about 95 pounds in 1976 to
just under 70 pounds in 1999. Pork consumption dropped from just
over 60 pounds per person in 1971 to between 50 pounds and 55
pounds per capita from 1982 to 1999.
Researchers say the study has broad implications - and opportunities - for the agriculture industry. "Cultural diversity is increasing and, with it, shifts in demand," Schroeter said. "The food industry
needs to find a way to diversify its production towards more convenient products, because consumers are looking for products that are
easy to prepare."

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Meat + Poultry - October 2004

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