Tyson Foods won’t buy Canadian cattle because
it can’t afford to meet the U.S. government’s County-of-Origin Labeling rules.
Worth Sparkman sent an e-mail to Meatingplace
Magazine this week saying the buying ban took effect this week.
Tyson will, however, continue to buy Canadian
cattle that have been finished in U.S. feedlots.
Tyson’s announcement steps up the pressure on
the U.S. government to revamp its Country-of-Origin labeling rules to bring
them in line with a World Trade Organization ruling that they unfairly and
illegally discriminate against imported cattle and hogs.
Canada’s beef industry figures the rules cost
Canadian farmers more than $600 million a year and the Canadian Pork Council puts
its loss at $1 billion a year.
The U.S. proposals to meet the WTO ruling are,
Canadian and U.S. meat packers agree, even worse than the existing rules.
"Like many others in the North American
beef industry, we're very disappointed by the changes made in the U.S. country
of origin labeling rules,” said Sparkman.
“These new rules significantly increase costs
because they require additional product codes, production breaks and product
segregation, including a separate category for cattle shipped directly from
Canada to U.S. beef plants without providing any incremental value to our
customers," Sparkman said.
Tyson does not have enough warehouse capacity
to accommodate the proliferation of products requiring different types of
labels due to the regulation, he said.
