ASI Expresses Concern for Small Processors

"We urge every consideration be taken to ensure the validation process accommodates the concerns that expenses could force the plants the sheep industry depends upon to go out of business or to decide not to process lamb," stated Glen Fisher (Texas), president of the American Sheep Industry Association, in his industry comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) validation.

The lamb industry in America markets one-third of its annual production to nontraditional and ethnic markets with the vast majority of that supply being processed by small and independent meat processors. This equates to a million lambs per year marketed via smaller and multi-species plants-the very plants that are most at risk from increased costs due to multiple species and multiple products.

"The loss of plants that process lamb for our industry would be devastating for the entire sheep farm and ranch sector due to the share of lamb production at stake nationally with the smaller and multi-species companies," concluded Fisher.