Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 11/10/09

One of the largest pork producers in the country has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will probably have to liquidate its 30,000-sow operation in the latest indication the U.S. hog industry is still struggling to shrink to a profitable size.

Clinton, N.C.-based Coharie Hog Farm was ranked as the 22nd largest pork producer in the country by Successful Farming magazine.

"Coharie Hog Farm did, in fact, file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which calls for an orderly liquidation of all the animals and the assets of the company," Curtis Barwick, acting land and environmental manager for Coharie Farms, told the Sampson Independent.

The Fayetteville Observer quoted court papers saying the company will attempt to reorganize and continue operating. But if it can't obtain sufficient credit, it will liquidate. The Raleigh News and Observer quoted owner Anne Faircloth as saying she plans to liquidate the company, and some of its 170 employees will be laid off.

Faircloth is the daughter of Lauch Faircloth, the former U.S. senator from North Carolina who founded the company in 1972.

The company produces 190 million pounds of pork annually and hires 101 farm families in North Carolina and Indiana to raise hogs, according to the Observer. It quoted bankruptcy documents saying the company lost $13.3 million in 2008, and lost $17 million so far this year. The documents also said it has more than 450 creditors, with about $50 million in secured debts and $8 million to $10 million in unsecured debts.

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