Pilgrim’s Pride is making a huge bet on organic chicken
processing.
It’s going to convert one of its plants to process organic
chicken and believes it can capture 20 per cent of the market.
Its only big-company competitor is Purdue Farms which is in
the organic market with its Coleman brand. The rest of the organic market is served by relatively small-scale processors.
Pilgrim’s Pride also intends to have more than a quarter of
its chickens grown without the help of antibiotics by the end of 2018.
Costco, one of Pilgrim’s Pride customers, is planning to
build its own chicken-processing plant.
Bill Lovette, chief executive officer for Pilgrim’s Pride,
said Costco’s investment is to process birds of a certain size, not to reduce
its procurement costs.
My wife and I are certainly pleased with the the large-size fully-roasted
chickens they offer at an attractive price.
