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The North American Meat Institute, the highest body of the country’s meat processing union, which brings together companies such as JBS USA, Cargill and Tyson Foods, criticized the Joe Biden administration after government will signal to the industry of “pandemic speculation” in reference that the prices of products have gone up
The dispute began when last week at a press conference Vilsack, together with the director of the National Economic Council of the White House, Brian Deese, described the four largest meat companies in the country as greedy “middlemen” .
Thomas Vilsack expressed in the meeting with the media that “farmers are losing money on cattle, pigs and poultry that they sell in a time when consumers see higher prices in the store. And now there are record gains or near record gains for those in the middle. ”
The North American Meat Institute through a public letter addressed to the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack not only responded the statement, without also pointing out that the government “refuses to recognize” the real problem, the shortage of personnel.
The organization did not hesitate in saying in the letter that the increase in prices was the result of a labor shortage throughout the country, not the consolidation of the meat industry. For this reason, Anna Potts representative of the North American Meat Institute said: “The Administration cannot ignore the fundamental principles of supply and demand “.
The North American Meat Institute did not hesitate to state that the government” has not proposed solutions to the problem that is lived, they also stated that the Secretary of Agriculture has done little to improve “the structure of the meat and poultry industry to help families who struggle to pay for food.”
Anna Potts said that the main problem in the meat industry is the same problem that affects other industries such as restaurants and hotels: labor shortages. “Unfortunately, the (officials’) press conference never acknowledged the challenge of the labor shortage.”
On the sidelines Due to the differences between the government and companies, the prices of meat products have skyrocketed across the country. Throughout the year, meat producers have had to contend with shortages, product contamination and even cyber attacks that have affected business throughout the United States. These eventualities have reduced the profits of several companies.
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