Meat + Poultry - April 2006 - 32

Niche poultry

Natural and organic poultry products are
showing up on the shelves of not only specialty
supermarkets, but also at traditional retailers as
consumers demand continues to grow.
(Photo courtesy of Coleman Natural Foods.)

and really run with it."
Petaluma Poultry, Petaluma, Calif.,
is the other half of Coleman's poultry
operation. It was the first U.S. manufacturer of natural and organic poultry. Coleman is also
in the natural and
organic meat business, manufacturing
beef, pork, sausage,
lamb and bison with
Chicago-based Penn
Valley Foods, a company that made the
transition from conventional to natural and organic products. BC Natural has approximately 400
workers in its poultry growing and processing operation in Fredericksburg.
Natural and organic poultry and meat
is a steadily growing phenomenon in the
United States, O'Connor says. "Many
consumers today are moving toward
more healthy choices, toward more
wellness in their diets, in the foods that
they want to eat," O'Connor points out.
"Young professionals are looking for
better health and nutrition in the foods
they eat. Young women, when they're
pregnant or new young mothers after
they have their children, are pushing the
whole family toward eating differently
than they did before. That's the market
that we're responding to."

Beyond specialty markets
While much of the interest in buying
and selling natural and organic products
is at specialty stores, Hain's DePippo
says the large traditional supermarkets
are also proving to
be viable outlets.
"The bigger traditional supermarkets
are making changes
in the way they operate, responding both
to competition from
other kinds of food
retailers, as well as
to new demands from their own customers," he says. "So some of these
supermarkets are creating spaces or sections within the store, where natural and
organic food can be found. Of course,
those types of markets carry pretty
much everything, so they have to stock
a broader base of products. But you can
see the growing and diverse sections of
products appearing in those large supermarkets as well."
BC Natural Chicken is helping large
supermarket chains such as Acme, Giant and Shop Rite enter the natural and
organic products field without having
to search for suitable suppliers, according to O'Connor. Despite definitions
that seem quite clear-cut, classification for "natural" and "organic" leaves

"We don't have
the revenue, the
size, the names like
Tyson or Gold Kist."

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plenty of consumers confused. "But
we are involved in the specialty stores
very much, including companies like
Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and others,"
O'Connor says.
While DePippo doesn't discuss his
specific customers, he points out that
in addition to supplying the specialty
chains selling these high-end products,
Hain also is marketing to locally owned
stores selling natural, organic and
other products viewed as "healthier"
by many consumers. Both O'Connor
and DePippo say local and regionally
owned food specialty stores are springing up across the country. These are not
the same as the old-style "health food"
stores that could be found in large cities back in the 1960s and 1970s.
Natural production
According to O'Connor and DePippo,
the process of raising chickens for the
natural and organic market is different
than for the commodity industry. The
difference starts with the growers, who
raise the birds brought to the slaughtering and processing plants. DePippo says
the growers for Hain Pure Protein tend
to have smaller farming operations than
growers for large poultry processors,
which ties in with the philosophy of his
company. The role of the grower in this
effort goes beyond supplying chickens
to the processors, he says. "We want to
support small family farms and help
them survive," he adds. "The partnership between them and our company
is very important. They have a bright
future in working with us and our organization, because they want us to have
a long-term commitment to these products, and we do."
DePippo says the company is also
trying to support its growers' livelihoods, because in many cases, 100
percent of the growers' income comes
from their farming operations. "For
many of our people, it's not some side-

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Meat + Poultry - April 2006

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