More "Power Hour Chatter" on Is
Smithfield Foods, the world’s
largest pork packer and hog
producer, linked to the
outbreak?
Is
Smithfield Foods, the world’s
largest pork packer and hog
producer, linked to the
outbreak? Smithfield operates
massive hog-raising operations
Perote, Mexico, in the state of
Vera Cruz, where the outbreak
originated. The operations,
grouped under a Smithfield
subsidiary called Granjas
Carroll, raise 950,000 hogs per
year, according to the
company
Web site.
On
Friday, the U.S.
disease-tracking blog
Biosurveillance
published a timeline of the
outbreak containing this nugget,
dated April 6 (major
tip of the hat to Paula Hay, who
alerted me to the Smithfield
link on the Comfood listserv and
has
written
about it
on her
blog,
Peak Oil
Entrepreneur):
Residents [of Perote]
believed the outbreak had
been caused by contamination
from pig breeding farms
located in the area. They
believed that the farms,
operated by Granjas Carroll,
polluted the atmosphere and
local water bodies, which in
turn led to the disease
outbreak. According to
residents, the company
denied responsibility for
the outbreak and attributed
the cases to “flu.” However,
a municipal health official
stated that preliminary
investigations indicated
that the disease vector was
a type of fly that
reproduces in pig waste and
that the outbreak was linked
to the pig farms. It was
unclear whether health
officials had identified a
suspected pathogen
responsible for this
outbreak.
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
China's Cofco Agrees to Buy 4.95
Percent of Smithfield Foods
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601089&sid=aa6dNFHIDrts&refer=china
By William
Bi and Feiwen Rong
July 1
(Bloomberg) -- China's Cofco
Ltd. agreed to buy 4.95 percent
of
Smithfield
Foods Inc.,
the world's largest pork
processor, paving the way for
possible joint ventures in the
Asian nation.
Cofco
will buy 7 million shares at a
price to be decided later,
Virginia-based Smithfield said
yesterday in a statement
distributed by PR Newswire. The
stake would cost Beijing-based
Cofco, the country's largest
grain importer, $139 million at
yesterday's close of $19.88.
Rising
incomes in China, the world's
fastest-growing major economy,
are spurring demand for a diet
with more meat. The companies
may jointly start processing
plants in China, Beijing Orient
Agribusiness Consultant Ltd.'s
Guo
Huiyong
said.
``Cofco
wants to play big in the hog
sector, and it has no experience
in slaughtering and
processing,'' Guo, a livestock
analyst, said by phone from
Beijing. The agreement may also
pave the way for Smithfield to
buy into Cofco's meat unit, he
said.
Pork
prices in China, the world's
largest consumer of the meat,
surged 38 percent in May from a
year ago as disease, bad weather
and rising costs reduced
supplies.
``China
is experiencing rapid growth in
pork consumption and consumes
more pork than the rest of the
world combined,''
Larry Pope,
chief executive officer of
Smithfield Foods, said in the
statement. ``Cofco has
introduced Smithfield to many
opportunities in China.''
Meet
Demand
Cofco's
President Patrick Yu met with
Pope who visited China in
January, and the two companies
plan to jointly meet the Asian
country's demand, according to a
Jan. 25 statement on Cofco's
Web site.
The
agreement probably won't lead to
``a big increase in China's pork
imports,'' Guo said. The lower
costs of feed and labor make
China's pork cheaper than
imports, he said.
Smithfield in August said it won
a contract to ship 60 million
pounds of pork to China, the
first of its kind. No further
major sales followed, as issues
related to quarantine and prices
stalled negotiations.
``The
more important thing is we will
work closer to build the pork
industry in China, like set up
breeding and slaughtering
businesses,'' said Wang Lin, a
manager at Cofco.
Smithfield Foods also said it
will sell $350 million of
convertible senior notes to help
pay debt.
To
contact the reporters for this
story:
Feiwen
Rong
in Singapore at
frong2@bloomberg.netWilliam
Bi
in
Beijing at
wbi@bloomberg.net