Meat + Poultry - April 2009 - 10

BUSINESS NOTES
Senate conﬁrms former
Dallas mayor as trade chief
Ron Kirk, former mayor of Dallas, received Senate conﬁrmation March 18 to
be the nation's top trade ofﬁcial with responsibilities for advancing free trade
at a time when many Americans see foreign competition as a threat to their
livelihoods. Kirk was conﬁrmed as U.S. trade representative after the Senate
voted 92-5 in his favor.
At his conﬁrmation hearing, Kirk said he would work to expand trade but
did not come to the job with "deal fever." He would try to help American workers hit by the negative aspects of trade and put more effort
into ensuring that trade partners aren't violating existing
agreements on open trade, he said.
"During his political career, Ron Kirk has worked with
both sides of the political aisle and is known as a coalition
builder, attributes that will serve him well at USTR," said
Don Butler, president of the National Pork Producers Council. "NPPC looks forward to working with Ambassador Kirk
on many important pork trade issues, and we will continKirk
ue to promote an aggressive trade agenda in Washington."
NPPC hopes to work closely with Kirk to maintain important U.S. pork export markets such as China, Mexico, Russia and Taiwan. The organization
also looks forward to a successful conclusion to the World Trade Organization's Doha Round negotiations. NPPC's biggest objective in those multilateral trade talks is signiﬁcant new market access for U.S. pork in the European
Union and in Japan.

Pilgrim's Pride names new sales,
marketing executive
Jerry Wilson, a 29-year poultry-industry veteran, has been named executive vice president of sales and marketing for Pilgrim's Pride Corporation.
Although his hire is subject to approval of the United
States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of
Texas, he joined the company immediately on an interim basis.
"Technically, this is a new position," says Ray Atkinson director of corporate communications. "Bob Wright,
who had previously been executive vice president of
sales and marketing, was named COO on March 26,
2008. At that time, the EVP sales/marketing position
Wilson
was eliminated. Mr. Wright resigned as COO on Dec.
16, 2008, when Don Jackson became president and CEO."
Wilson most recently served nine years as vice president of sales and
marketing for Keystone Farms LLC, Huntsville, Ala. Prior to that, he spent
seven years as vice president of sales and marketing with Seaboard Farms
Inc., Athens, Ga. He also has held operations, quality-assurance and management positions with Simmons Foods, Siloam Springs, Ark., and Sanderson Farms, Laurel, Miss.
Pilgrim's Pride filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions on Dec. 1, 2008. The
company's operations in Mexico and certain operations in the United States
were not included in the filing and continue to operate as usual outside of
the Chapter 11 process.
10

MEAT&POULTRY

April 2009

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Foster Farms to buy
Pilgrim's plant
After announcing in late February,
plans to idle its facility in Farmerville,
La., Pilgrim's Pride Corp. announced it
will sell the poultry complex to Foster
Farms, Livingston, Calif., for $80 million. The transaction is pending due to
a waiting period under the Hart-Scott
Rodino Improvements Act and approval
by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Pilgrim's
Pride is reorganizing under Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection. The Farmerville
operations include a processing facility,
cook plant, hatchery, feed mill and protein conversion plant.

Clariﬁcation:
In the March, 2009 issue of M&P,
the following clariﬁcations apply to
the proﬁle of Rod Brenneman and
Seaboard Foods (see "Sustained
note," Page 38):
* In 1982, as part of a partial change
in direction, Seaboard Allied Milling Co. sold its milling interests
in the U.S. (not worldwide) to
Cargill.
* The company's plan to contract hog
production for its Guymon, Okla.
plant changed and it wound up
owning virtually all (not all) of its
hog farms. The company also contracted with some local farmers.
* Seaboard's USDA Process Veriﬁed
pork meets the agency's requirements to make marketing claims
for quality, animal sourcing and
animal handling.
* In discussing the challenges in
maintaining consistency in hogs
processed at the plant, Brenneman said: "...every time you
go in and mess with biological
creatures (not features), you can
affect growth pattern..."

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Meat + Poultry - April 2009

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