Postville, IA – The new owner of the former AgriProcessors Inc. meatpacking plant in Postville says it is now producing beef for the first time since a May 2008 immigration raid.
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Hershey Friedman, CEO of Agri Star Meat and Poultry, says the plant began slaughtering beef a couple of weeks ago. Friedman bought the plant eight months ago.
Friedman said Agri Star Meat and Poultry is currently slaughtering about 90 head of cattle each day, which is more than 87 percent fewer cattle than what Agriprocessors produced at the peak of its business. The new plant employs 560 people.
Agri Star Meat and Poultry was recently given $600,000 in state assistance, plus tax credits, to help update machinery inside the plant.
Shhh.. You don’t want those beefy animal rights group in the know yet!
Nothing like competition. This past Pesach meat prices were the lowest in years. Currently the price trend is down.
I wish you and your employees much success.
Hopefully Mr. Friedman will not repeat the same mistakes that were done at the plant before. Hatzlacha!
Sure with a 60% and additional 20% kosher what the big deal to get rid of the non kosher
Under whose Hashgocha is the plant?????
I know Mr. FriedMan personally. Great man that will bring a new era to the kosher market.
Lower prices had nothing to do with Friedman. It has a lot to do with lower commodity prices and the fact that due to the economy many people cannot afford beef and are using alternatives like chiken and fish.
just the opposite. This Pesach’s meat prices were the highest ever. One store a week before pesach raised their prices by $1.49 a pound for all types of meat. A day after pesach they lowered the price by that exact amount. Interesting the meat was the same. All meat are kosher for pesach all year long. There is no reason for any increase in prices
This man is a real hero & tzadik – and will hopefully contribute to the reduction of superior kashrus meat prices to come down to reasonable levels.
May he be very maztliach !!!!! He will need much siyata dishmaya not to be brought down by the various nefarious interests each with their agendas.
Well Obama did say he would redistribute the wealth. So he took a perfectly profitable company, through the direction and control of the INS and justice Dpt., bankrupted it by refusing to allow it to operate, and then practically handpicked a sucessor by requiring federal approval of the purchaser. not that I have any particular opinion on the new owner, I am glad it is a yid — but whose pocket does the 600k in tax credits come from – YOURS.
We all wish them mazel and hopefully this will be the last time we have to hear about the prior managment.
Since Agri lest the scene, many new companies sprung up. Business might be business but there will be a lot of competition out there now. Which frum person will succeed? Which will go bankrupt?
Do we need so much competition? Prices may or may not go down (right now, treif prices are high. see http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/lsddcbs.pdf for the latest treif prices. Note the trend in red in the upper right hand corner. Where prices lower for Pesach?)
So, do we need so much competition? All you need is one very aggressive company who will undercut prices and hope that they will drive other frum people out of business. If he doesn’t, then you have the Rubashkin model all over again.
In the near future we hope that Friedman will export meat to Montreal. This will help the many frum families that are taxed by the Vaad monopoly on hashgachaga and their outdated ban on shchutai chutz. Do to the total lack of compition Montrealers pay the highest prices for meat in North America.
Maybe I’ll now be able to afford meat again!
ou
Cursed be peta and the unions that smashed a profitable company and incarcerated an innocent man. May they be treated like the cattle they worship. That being said, may G-d grant the new owner much hatzlocho
Is this Hershey Friedman from Montreal that has his name on a few buildings in Mir Jerusalem??
im surprised its not called hershy & raizy processors
reb hershy deserves only mazel and brochoh after all what he does for klall yisroel
and if you eat his meat for 120 years, you’ll have ”arichas yomim”
Let’s make a simple calculation 560 workers a day min pay is 10$ each work atleast 10 hours equals 56,000 a day labor cost the kill 90 heads a day each animal min cost 1000 so we have another 90,000 and 20,000 chikens a day additional cost for sochtim is atleast 50,000 a day so where. All non kosher cows are a brutal lost how would the company make profit in today economy?
If there’s all these kosher meats on the market then why does kosher meat still cost so much more than treif meat?
Believe me GUYS trust a old meat company that owners and their hecsher is own for years versus a new owner and new hecsher in the meat business that no acknowledge besides running a plastic factory 24/7
“which is more than 87 percent fewer cattle than what Agriprocessors produced.”
What does THIS mean?
The pictures says a lot! Bal Gaveh Shrica FOOY!
Why did Rabbi Weissmandel take off his Hechsher???????
If you know please post
lets hope he gives tzedaka similarly to smr…the yeshiva aint doin too well there
What were the chumros that Weismandl put in? What were the chumros that Tartikov put in? How are they different fron OU and CHK?
This is important. Are we paying for Chumros or shtus??? Is the meat better if the shoichet goes to the Mikva twice a day, instead of once a day??