President Biden is wrong to portray the meat and poultry industry as the villain behind soaring grocery prices, said Mike Brown, president of the National Chicken Council, in an essay published in a Maryland newspaper. . “This administration has chosen to put politics above protein,” he wrote.
Consumer prices increased by 7% in 2021, with chicken prices increasing by 10.4% and meat prices by 14.8%. In the Salisbury (Maryland) Daily Times essay, Brown said rising chicken prices “barely outpace inflation – even though major inputs like corn, soybeans, gasoline, wraps and transportation is increasing by double digits. Yet chicken farmers are kind of the bad guy?”
The administration’s proposals to encourage new independent processors to go into business and give growers more leverage with processors “will likely increase costs, risk and exacerbate the current market situation,” Brown said. .
The meat industry has also denied responsibility for the rising prices of beef and pork at the grocery store.
The North American Meat Institute, which speaks on behalf of meat packers, said meat prices were rising “due to labor shortages, increased consumer demand, chain issues supply and other factors encountered by most sectors of the economy”.
Biden on Tuesday pointed to consolidation in the meat industry as a factor in high meat prices, saying, “You’ve got the Big Four [processors] control everything. »
