| 9/25/2003 Iowa Senator Targets Pork Powerhouses With Ceiling on Integration - 9/24 AgOnline This legislation, he told reporters during a telephone news conference, becomes even more critical in the concentration debate because the pork industry is at a critical juncture due to the impending sale of Farmland Foods, the company's pork division. Pork Powerhouses Cargill and Smithfield have both made bids for the company's pork assets as part of a bankruptcy auction. The senator said either we stop the trend toward vertical integration, or we prepare for what he called the "inevitable chickenization" of the pork industry. The three major poultry industry segments - broilers, turkey and egg production - are all about 90% vertically integrated at this point, according to a June 2003 report from USDA's Economic Research Service. The bill Grassley introduced, "will at least limit the cancerous growth of vertical integration until we can pass a cure," he said. "It's important that we sustain a place in the market for independant pork producers and family farmers." "What we're doing is going after the big boys that not only are big packers but also the ones who tend to squeeze out the spot market because they've got such a high percentage of their own hogs that their butchering," he said. That puts his sights on a small number of very large packers who control 60% of the country's hog slaughter, he said, though he did not name names. The nation's eight largest vertically integrated pork packers (in order) are Smithfield, Tyson, Cargill's Excel, Hormel, Farmland Foods, Seaboard and Premium Sta ndard Farms, according to a recent ranking from National Pork Producer's Council. Swift, another of the country's largest packers, is not vertically integrated. So far there is no companion bill in the House. Related Link: http://www.agonline.com |
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