08/03/05 Impact on Northwest packing plants

A lot has changed in the two years that the US border has been closed to Canadian cattle imports. Most Northwest packing plants went through reductions and cutbacks during that time. The Canadians had feeder cattle and not enough places to process them so the government helped them expand says Rick Stott of Boise based Agri-Beef. STOTT "Basically provided programs to a tune of well over a billion dollars to provide and develop that infrastructure. The packing capacity in Canada has increased by about 30 percent and will increase to 35 percent next spring." Through all of this Agri-Beef hasn't been adversely affected. Its Toppenish, Washington plant has been operating five to six days a week and the company is going through a multi-million dollar expansion of that facility. True, they're on a smaller scale than some of the other packers but. STOTT "Publicly traded companies like National, Swift and even IBP and you look at what their numbers have been and their margins, it's been negative in a big way for the last year." So time will tell if Northwest packers can pull down the Canadian cattle now that the Canadians have decided they need to rely less on the US. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott