Posted on 03/12/2008 7:18:04 AM PDT by mnehring
Pilgrim's Pride Corporation on Wednesday announced it will close a chicken processing complex and six of its 13 distribution centers in the United States.
None of the impacted facilities are in Texas.
Company officials said the action was in response to what they deemed a crisis facing the U.S. chicken industry from soaring feed-ingredient costs resulting from corn-based ethanol production.
"Our Company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders," said Clint Rivers, president and chief executive officer.
"The cost burden is already enormous, and it's growing even larger," Rivers said. "Based on current commodity futures markets, our company's total costs for corn and soybean meal to feed our flocks in fiscal 2008 would be more than $1.3 billion higher than what they were two years ago."
These actions are part of a plan to curtail losses amid record-high costs for corn, soybean meal and other feed ingredients and an oversupply of chicken in the United States. The closings, which are expected to begin immediately and will be completed by June, will result in the elimination of approximately 1,100 jobs. Additionally, the company announced that it is in the process of reviewing other production facilities for potential mix changes, closure and/or consolidation in response to current negative industry fundamentals.
Under the plan announced Wednesday, the Pilgrim's Pride will close its chicken processing complex in Siler City, N.C., which employs approximately 830 people. Pilgrim's Pride also plans to shut down distribution centers in Oskaloosa, Iowa; Plant City and Pompano Beach, Fla.; Jackson, Miss.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Cincinnati, Ohio.
The company will provide transition programs to employees to assist them in securing new employment, filing for unemployment and other applicable benefits, officials said.
The company expects to record asset impairment and other charges related to the facility closures of approximately $35 million, $21.7 million net of tax, or $0.33 per share, Rivers said.
"We simply must find ways to pass along these higher costs," Rivers said. "Additionally, we believe that the recent impact of food-based inflation, coupled with the need for food producers to continue to increase prices for their products, will further stimulate inflation, weaken consumer confidence and negatively affect demand for products in certain market channels."
Chickens coming home to roost ping....
No society ever survived by burning its food.
Another Unintended Consequence of a government program, in which the remedy only exacerbates the original problem. Of course, the BigAg states love it.
The gov’t needs to stay out of commercial enterprise. Period
More illegal aliens out of work...
...and how many illegals?........
you nailed it.
Of course, society won't 'DIE' because of burning the food.
Society may die because of government/elite/bureaucratic meddling in the market and trying to perfect the elusive command economy, but that's happened in hundreds of other instances throughout history.
Ethanol is choking off the chicken business!
for what it’s worth, lefties don’t like ethanol any more than we do. everybody hates it but the companies that get to look good making it, and the corn growers.
It sounds like by the time this is over we will be lucky to even have a chicken bone in every pot.
So much for a chicken in every pot. We need to “feed” the car in every garage.
All the meat processors are participating in EEV so the number of illegals working there is relatively small. Based on the numbers detected at the Swift Swat Raid, about 10%.
No society ever survived once the liberals elements took over and over governed.
And the politicians who would rather starve people than drill for oil. /rediculous
Chicken feed; any news on hen’s teeth?
Eat mor chikin!
Chickens are coming home for Bo. He has hired illegals for years and had completely destroyed the NE Texas area where I live by importing all the illegal immigrants. He has permanently changed the face of many towns mainly Pittsburg and Mt. Pleasant to become slums with an even increasing gang problem in the schools and the smell of rendering chicken parts in the air. Until the last few years we were a quiet area great for raising kids now we have metal detectors in our 3A schools thanks to the criminal Mexicans he has brought into town and the overflow of our Pediatric Clinic and ER with non-paying, non-citizen moochers.
Even the Wal-mart has changed their buying scheme to bring in more ethnic items and you won’t hear much English spoken there . We refuse to shop in that town anymore and drive a hour way to shop for groceries and everything else.
Most people over-looked it since he gives to a lot of charities and is the #1 employer within 100 miles.
Make no mistake, ALL of the big chicken processing companies are dependent on illegal labor. And to tell the truth, those are some of the few jobs this American doesn’t want to do.
Driving by the plants, I think I can agree with you on this. The smell, even a half a mile away, makes you never want to eat chicken again.
Some questioned it from the beginning, but there comes a point when common sense is so obvious that only the most ignorant could fail to see it.
Motives are questionable for continuing after that point.
AND...get some oil refineries built on closed military bases as was promised .
I don’t think most Americans have yet made the connection between soaring food prices and the half-witted, bought and paid for actions of their elected representatives in Washington. I had never seen any size eggs priced much above $1.00 per dozen, but now Extra Large are $2.50 per dozen. Flour has increased 50% or more, and significant increases in beef, chicken, etc., and most everything in the supermarket.
I wonder if it’d be possible to have a more stupid and incompetent government in Washington. It will be more than justified if they begin to feel outrage and wrath from their constituents, once they finally make the connections.
Why can’t they increase what they charge? All the other chicken processing firms must be dealing with food issues, increasing their costs by a similar amount.
Me and my chicken are choked up over this news.
My van runs on regular unleaded.
There’s a new E85 station down the road. They offer E85 at $2.85/gallon.
Normally, my van gets 17/23 to the gallon.
If I had the E85 capable engine, (or do I actually need the FuelFlex engine to handle E85?) then my milage goes down to 12/16.
So, at $3.16/gallon which I filled up at yesterday morning, I would be able to fill up more cost-effectively with regular unleaded than this new E85 scam.
What’s the benefit? Less emissions? My van already has an emissions filter and is tested anually for excess emissions. (And as I found in Florida, if you pour a single bottle of isproypal alcohol into your fuel tank, you reduce your emissions for the duration of the test to be able to pass.)
Paul
“Make no mistake, ALL of the big chicken processing companies are dependent on illegal labor. And to tell the truth, those are some of the few jobs this American doesn’t want to do.”
I don’t buy that. My hometown has had a chicken processing plant since the late 1950s. It now employs around 900 and no Hispanics had ever lived in this area until about ten years ago. Even now, it’s a low percentage (about 2%), and they make up only a tiny portion of that plant’s work force.
But if illegals should be allowed to flood this area, I feel sure wages would fall and the workforce would become increasingly Hispanic, and the whites and blacks would gradually move to other work as they could find it.
These plants are dependent on illegal labor only where illegal labor has come in (or been brought in) and driven down wages and drive out the extant work force. Enforce the law and this won’t happen.
These companies have at times put up large, new plants in areas where they couldn’t possibly recruit the workforce needed. Then the illegals begin to stream in in large numbers. Enforce the law and that will also end.
LOL! Humor POTD!
As long as the agriculture doesn’t involve livestock. We are paying TRIPLE for ethanol subsidies. First we pay the taxes, then we have to purchase the ethanol that we ALREADY PAID FOR, and then we have to pay higher food costs!
Sorry but this still beats, sending our money to terrorists.
Well that's ok, then. Screw Pilgrim's Pride.
I used to travel through a lot of those towns over the years, and I’m absolutely stunned how much they’ve changed... Pittsburg Tx, Center Tx, DeQueen, Ark., etc. It’s scarey, seeing so many once-quaint locales becoming so menacing and third-worldy. And, within such a short, short time-frame. One of the main reasons the whole amnesty/illegals situation has become such a number-one hot button political issue for me.
It's not so much that we're burning our food. We're growing our fuel.
But, hey, putting it that way doesn't sound nearly as clever and, for some, clever trumps truth.
http://www.topix.com/forum/dallas/TTMF8SI71DD79B2BH"
“And to tell the truth, those are some of the few jobs this American doesn’t want to do.”
I have said before W was right about this. If we deport all the illegals quickly the economy would dive. I say keep some on a reverse merit program, let those that want to do menial ag labor stay- they are paying the price for illegal entry by virtue of their drudgery. Those and their employers that are taking good trade jobs from Americans are kicked out.
I read somewhere that it actually requires a little more that one gallon of gas to produce one gallon of ethanol - Only in America.
Pilgrim’s Pride recently purchased GoldKist and this may be a restructuring to make the company more efficient. Rather than take the hit themselves after assuring this would not happen during the purchases, why not blame it on the high corn prices and ethanol.
I am not saying he does not have a point, just not sure we are receiving the whole story.
It will be interesting to see which choice will win out.
Why not take those receiving $$$ from the government not to work take the jobs of the illegals.
Americans do not want to do some of those jobs at the wages being paid because they are not required to do so. Eliminate some of the welfare programs and see if people are suddenly willing to do those jobs.
"Since 2001, ethanol production has quadrupled from 1.6 billion gallons in 2000 to an estimated 6.4 billion gallons in 2007, with the vast majority coming from corn. In 2005, the United States became the world’s leading ethanol producer, and last year, the U.S. accounted for nearly half of worldwide ethanol production."Whitehouse
“Eliminate some of the welfare programs and see if people are suddenly willing to do those jobs.”
Eggsactly.
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