For months there have been warnings about the possible impact of a slowdown at Agriprocessors on the availability of kosher meat. But with the company’s recent filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and the unrelated shutdown at another major kosher plant, the situation seems to have entered the crisis stage.
Last week, this email arrived from a kosher retailer in New Jersey:
It is safe to say that we will no longer be getting deliveries from Agriprocessors, Inc. Their facilities have been closed since late last week, and there is no reason to believe that they will re-open. We have been using alternate suppliers for the past 3 months trying to supplement our beef inventory. Although we have long expected that this would happen, the kosher beef market has been devastated. They supplied a majority of the kosher beef in the US.. The demand for beef far exceeds the supply chain.
