A22-L>nctstef Farming, Saturday, May 27, 2000
Pork Cooperative
(Continued from Pago A 1)
tries, including swine.
Right now the co-op is look
ing for a CEO and is in the
middle of its foundation mem
bership drive, Adams said. The
board includes nine directors,
including six producer-members
and three from the outside.
The bylaws have been written
to begin seeking membership in
the top 25 states. Pennsylvania
has already been approved.
The co-op offers different
types of membership, Adams
noted:
• Regular membership for
producers who bear the risk of
production. This will allow pro
ducers to sell hogs and pork
through the cooperative.
• Asspciate membership.
This can include a nonproducer,
swine organization, or producer
related council, such as the
Pennsylvania Pork Producers
Cooperative (PPPC), already a
member.
Memberships cost $5OO. Cost
to market hogs is 10 cents per
hog, with a minimum of 5,000
hogs.
Costs of hog registration are
$5OO for 5,000 head, $l,OOO for
10.000 head, and $2,500 for
25.000 head. Hog registration
1 L , II [I |l
Pork Value Chain - 10 year average
“SXo.Po7 k h^Sr ra,,Ve - ln ' ormaH<>n to “PP'"*
BUY,
SELL,
TRADE
OR
RENT
THROUGH
THE
CLASSIFIED
ADS
IN
Lancaster
Farming
PHONE
717-626-1164
OR
717-394-3047
FAX
717-733-6058
does not commit a producer to
participate in the co-op.
The co-op may have to rely on
existing processors to deliver the
hogs in a certain region on a
custom basis and fabricate the
products according to specifica
tions.
Members so far represent sev
eral million hogs per year.
Pork America has more mem
bers with hogs than they can
move meat, noted Adams. But
the opportunities are presenting
themselves, he noted, and the
cooperative needs membership
money to give them negotiating
power.
Foundation memberships
offer a “first crack,” noted
Adams, at market opportunities.
Slaughter has been a low
margin business. But the chang
ing face of the business with
some companies leaving the
business entirely and others res
tructuring leaves room for a
producer cooperative such as
Pork America to start and
thrive.
“It’s called demand, it’s
called opportunity,” Adams
said.
Adams, who owns a 500-sow
hog business in the eastern part
of North Carolina, provided
some facts at the meeting:
cli°me?«la fn 3b ,? Ut the n , ew sw,ne coo Pork America, at a spe-
• Smithfield, at number 1,
holds 20.6 percent of all hog pro
cessing in the country. They own
their own hogs.
• Number 2 hog processor,
IBP, holds 17.8 percent. Pork
America can capture some inde
pendent business as restructur
ing and repositioning take place.
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• Number 3, Swift, at 10.1
percent and 4, Excel, at 9.9 per
cent, have no plants on the East
Coast. And some may not stay
in the packing business because
of low margins.
The future for hog farmers is
to be part of an integrated, coor
dinated, or aligned system,
it work.”
Adams said the cooperative is
“toying to change the way we do
things. In the future, we have to
be able to learn how to be in an
integrated or coordinated
system to survive and prosper.
That’s what we’re trying to
create here a coordinated
system.”
For more information about
Pork America, contact Adams at
(252) 568-1147 or e-mail at pata
dams@greene.kl2.nc.us.