Source: MEATINGPLACE, 10/24/13

Tyson Foods has stopped buying cattle for shipment to its U.S. beef plants, citing the impact of U.S. country-of-origin labeling rules, company spokesman Worth Sparkman said in a statement emailed to Meatingplace.

The new policy became effective in mid-October, he said. Tyson is continuing to buy Canadian-born cattle that are finished for market at U.S. feedlots.

"Like many others in the North American beef industry, we're very disappointed by the changes made in the U.S. country of origin labeling rules. These new rules significantly increase costs because they require additional product codes, production breaks and product segregation, including a separate category for cattle shipped directly from Canada to U.S. beef plants without providing any incremental value to our customers," Sparkman said.

Tyson does not have enough warehouse capacity to accommodate the proliferation of products requiring different types of labels due to the regulation, he said.

"As a result, we have discontinued buying cattle shipped to our U.S. beef plants directly from Canada, effective this week, but will continue to seek alternatives that will allow us to resume importing cattle directly from Canada," Sparkman said.

"We remain hopeful that these new rules will eventually be rescinded and we'll be able to resume buying cattle directly from Canadian cattle feeders," he said.

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