NMA up to bat for Canadian Beef

[cakadu]

The one line in that article that Annie posted that is the most disturbing is:

"...who have lost business and a source of inexpensive cattle since the import ban went into effect last year."

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

[cowman]

With all due respect...other than a cow plant, do we really need a lot more capacity? Maybe right now but what about when the border opens?
There was a reason the Canadian owned packing plants shut down and that reason was they couldn't compete with Cargill/IBP. And the fact is the Tory government picked the winners with sweetheart deals that no one else got? XL was so far in the hole to the government that they couldn't go down(were probably basically given to Neilsons)?
Now that isn't to say that "niche" type plants can't make it but no way can a Canadian plant go head to head with the big American companies...especially with the total lack of Canadian laws to protect the smaller guy?
I suspect we are probably looking at a very long time until the border opens for cows? So I would think a cow plant makes sense, but a regular fat plant? I suspect that will be quite a risky business? But hey, it's your money.
The day the border opens up to young stuff is the day they pour across the border? We might have some people up here who will not want to participate in that market but the majority will sell to the highest bidder?
This notion that somehow we are going to compete with these big boys is in fact a pipedream? Remember Petro-Can and how they were going to compete? Well billions of dollars later we know the answer?

[farmers_son]

Since the topic is the NMA or National Meat Association it might be of interest to for Canadian producers to have a primer on Who’s Who in the North American meat business.

The National Meat Association is a non-profit industry association that has served the meat industry since 1946. The NMA provides a variety of services, from one-on-one regulatory assistance to legislative representation, to its members the most notable of which is Tyson Foods. Cargill, Excel and Swifts are not members.

The American Meat Institute (AMI) is the nation's oldest and largest meat and poultry trade association, founded 1906. AMI is dedicated to increasing the efficiency, profitability and safety of meat and poultry trade worldwide.
Notable members include Cargill, Excel and Swifts but not Tyson Foods.

The Canadian Meat Council (CMC) serve as the vehicle to express the collective views of the membership and to speak for the meat packing/processing industry in Canada and to contribute to the competitiveness of the industry domestically and internationally. The CMC is lead by the U.S. multinationals Tyson Foods and Cargill. Sunterra of Calgary is also a member.

http://www.meatami.com/Content/AboutAMI/AMIMembership/AMIMembercompanies/memberlinks.htm
http://www.nmaonline.org/html/links.htm
http://www.cmc-cvc.com/english/regular_members_e.asp

[rusty1]

"but no way can a Canadian plant go head to head with the big American companies." Cowman I'm disapointed at you're dogmatizm.
1) If we need to find a way, (and I think we can) lets get out of our box thinking ans see? May-be we can. What if we find a way? We never will find a way if we continue to think we CAN'T. I don't believe that's the way you started and run you're ranch, and I know that's not the way the "west was won".
2) I challenge every one of you to sit down and do a "SWOT" anaylaysis.
a)Streangths, 2)Weakness, 3)Opportunity, 4) Threats to the question, Can we build a packing plant owned by producers and be sucessful?

You'll be surprised, "WE CAN DO IT" that's exactly why the 3 locals are tripping over each other to pick up the slack and are trying to scare us into thinking we can't do it.

The REAL questions we should ask are
a) DOwe need to build our own PP?
b) How are do we?
c)What do we need to do to be sucessful.

Send you're SWOT anayalisys to
beef@cowboylogic.biz

I'll compile and report if you like.

WWe ahve done a SWOT study and a lot of further study, and are totaly convinced that it can work. Infact the movement in the US is toward a lot of smaller plants that are working and that's further rerason as to why the big 3 want our borders open, because they are having a harder time competing.

[cakadu]

Part of the reason that smaller plants could work is that they DON'T or WON'T go head to head with the big boys. That one is pretty much a no brainer.

A really good example of how this can work is in the pork industry in the US. One of the big players down there in pork is Smithfield foods. I have been wracking my brain trying to think of the name of the smaller company that is doing a lot of value-added pork products like various types of hams etc., but the name is escaping me right now. The point being that they are doing extremely well simply because they are flying below the radar of Smithfield.

Remember that a smaller plant is far more capable of meeting customer demands because there is less of a "machine" to turn around. Cargill and Tyson can't compete with any speed to shifting consumer demands, whereas a smaller plant can. They may eventually catch up, but if you've done your homework, then you can hopefully stay one step in front of them.

Rusty is right - you won't know until you try.

If I remember correctly cowman, I think at the time, there were a lot of other forces and influences that were pushing towards the consolidation and harmonization of the industry at the same time these companies were being invited in. If people/organizations and government had not all bought into the idea of sending live cattle over the border, thereby watching the value go down the road in the truck, and if they had not bought into the current system, then these packing plants would not have been put into the position that they now find themselves in.

The important thing is that now people have seen the light and they want to make changes, that will hopefully be for the better for producers in particular. There is no harm in trying.

There is an old Japanese proverb: Knocked down 7 times, get up 8 times.

You aren't beaten until you let yourself get beat.

[cowman]

Actually Linda: at that time there was not enough beef to go around once Cargill entered the scene. Only later, with the death of the CROW, did we become a net exporter of beef?
The only consolidation was the fact that Canada Packers was finishing off Lakeside and probably XL? The Alberta government was busy as bees propping up both Lakeside and XL? XL Calgary was the ultimate dog...and yet it survives today(XL Moosejaw was a CP plant) while excellent modern plants in Lethbridge and Red Deer were mothballed?
Your wonderful Tory government at work. picking the winners and losers? In the big picture the only one to blame for the packer situation is Getty and Klein...and probably in the backroom...Peter Lougheed!
The ghosts come back to haunt them...?

[rusty1]

There is one more to blame cowman. Some fingures point back at us.
As producers we were making (arguably) a comfortable enough living in a commodity market just plum happy and content when we saw the tail lights of the last liner leaving the yard, never to remember those calves again. (once the check was cashed).
We won't make things change until we're mad enough. Are you mad enough yet?

[farmers_son]

By definition, a new market entrant that "flies under the radar" by not competing with the established industry leaders will not help our fat cattle prices. Because to do so would offer competition. Unfortunately, the needed competition in our industry lies south of the border. It goes without saying that given the record high prices in the United States that once that market can access our live calves we will have competition. That competition comes not only from the fact that there are more large players south of the border who wish to buy our live cattle but a regulatory environment that precludes some of the outrageous price manipulation that we see in Canada.

Cowman is correct to point out the inherent challenges in starting a new packing plant venture. This is something that all should go into with their eyes wide open. Still the bigger they are the harder they fall and no company is invincible. I firmly believe that Canada will expand its packing industry and opportunities do exist for producer owned packing plants with the right management, business plan and financial structure.

I hear the calls for our border to remain closed as a means of stimulating a domestic packing plant industry. Don’t know if we could do that even if we wanted to. Stopping trade is like stopping the tide, difficult at best and eventually whatever barriers are put up are washed out to sea. Any potential new plants conducting a SWOT analysis should anticipate on having to compete in a reunited North American marketplace as a potential threat. Maybe the successful model will involve many small plants as cakadu suggests yet I would be concerned about their ability to develop and maintain competitive brands without sufficient scale. Even if successful they would soon be bought out by the established players. Rusty1’s vision of avoiding the commodity market by selling a value added product certainly is attractive however and I hope it is achieved. Sounds like Rusty1 is excited about the possibilities that really do exist out there and good for you. A word of advice if I may... Make sure to have fun in your new venture, life is too short not to!! Mad will only take you so far.

[cakadu]

Just because you fly under the radar of the big boys, doesn't mean that you can't be very successful with branded product(s). I've finally remembered the name of the company - it is Supreme Packing Company. This is a company which was essentially staying below the radar of the Hormel?s and the Smithfield?s and probably the Maple Leaf?s of the world by processing free-range, natural, organic hogs. Theywere going to process Berkshire hogs designed for the Japanese market. They?ll process Duroc ? they?ll process light hogs and they?re doing very, very well.

Now, in light of the problems in the hog industry, they might not be doing as well as they were, but at the time I heard this fellow speak about this company, they were doing as good or better than the big players based on operating margins.

Bigger is not necessarily better.

[CattleAnnie]

.R-CALF Throws It's Pitch.


R-CALF fires back at NMA over Candian cattle

by Pete Hisey on 9/21/04 for Meatingplace.com




The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) has responded to an attempt by the National Meat Association to interject itself into an ongoing dispute with the Agriculture Department over cattle imports from Canada.

R-CALF represents a vocal group of Western cattle ranchers, while NMA represents meatpackers and processors and related companies.

NMA asked to be named an intervenor in a federal case R-CALF has launched against the USDA (See NMA seeks status in Canadian beef import case, Meatingplace.com, Sept. 17, 2004.), winning an injunction against reopening the Canadian border to cattle until its case can be heard in court. NMA, in a statement, noted that the import ban is creating a shortage of cattle for the processing industry, causing layoffs and threatening earnings.

R-CALF responded late Friday that with much of the U.S. beef export market shut down, and prices at wholesale, if not retail, trending downward, there are plenty of cattle in the U.S. as is.

Both sides accuse the other of playing politics to advance their own interests, with NMA calling the cattlemen protectionists, and the cattlemen charging that the processors are endangering the entire industry by relaxing restrictions meant to keep cattle infected with BSE out of the U.S. food system.

Take care.