IPPE: Food Safety, Sustainability, Traceability Important for Restaurant Chains
US - In his presentation on 'The Customer’s View of the Poultry and Egg Industry', Barry Barnett, senior vice president of global supply chain and purchasing for Church’s Chicken, provided insight into the essential components that the company considers in its relationships with primary suppliers.
1 February 2013
3 minute read
By: From a national customer’s perspective – food safety, sustainability, traceability - is a must nowadays, he remarked. Mr Barnes’s presentation was part of the 'Poultry Market Intelligence Forum', held at the 2013 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE).
Mr Barnes described the 'three big things' Church’s Chicken evaluates in a partnership. The first is transparency, with a real partnership and relationship between companies. Second is effective and timely communication, and this needs to be fluid through the organizations so as to know and understand each other’s business. Third is profitability, as companies have to be profitable to drive sustainability. “The key take-away for mutual success from our perspective is to engage, understand, plan, create, execute and then replicate it all again,” he concluded.
“This year, if we get rain in the Midwest, we can have $4 dollar per bushel corn. If it does not rain, we can have $10 dollar per bushel corn,” remarked Dr Paul Aho, economist, Poultry Perspectives.
The question is if the US is going to have a drought this year. The chance of a drought in any given year is 17 per cent, and the US had gone 24 years without a significant drought until last year. Corn stocks have gone from about 20 per cent down to 10 per cent as a result of the 2012 drought, and Dr Aho’s estimate for corn prices, minus a drought, is around $5 per bushel this year or next year.
Dr Aho noted that the rising cost of beef in 2014 will result in poultry consumption surpassing red meat consumption next year. He also predicted that chicken production shall surpass beef production in 2014.
Mike Donohue, vice president, Agri Stats Inc., discussed performance trends for the poultry and egg industry. He commented that the industry continues to be very effective at producing chickens, turkeys and eggs, and big birds continue to gain ground in production efficiency. However, the industry is beset by a crisis in availability and expense for feed.
