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Local News Story
Corn farmers say NC pork producer hasn't paid them
Raleigh, 11.01.2009
AP
As many as 30 farmers in southeastern North Carolina say they haven't been paid for corn delivered to a large pork-producing company run by the daughter of former U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth.
The News and Observer of Raleigh reported Sunday that Stewart Young, a Bladen County farmer, estimates he and his father are owed as much as $200,000 for corn they took to a Bladenboro-area buying facility that is owned by Coharie Hog Farms.
``We're not going to be able to collect,'' Young said. ``It's sure going to hurt me.''
Young and another farmer, Alexander Cain, said 13 farmers went to Coharie headquarters in Clinton last week to complain but they weren't told when or whether they would be paid.
Anne Faircloth, partner of Clinton-based Coharie Hog Farms, said the company is contending with two years of shrinking profits but she aims to work with the farmers. She asked them to be patient.
``Like everyone else in the pork industry, Coharie has been faced with unprecedented losses,'' Faircloth said in an interview Saturday. ``We value our relationships with these farms, and we're working on a plan.''
Faircloth didn't offer details of the proposal.
North Carolina has the second-largest pork industry in the country, and Coharie Farms is a significant player in the state's industry.
The company, which sells its meat to the Virginia-based pork giant Smithfield, was ranked in 2009 as the 22nd largest pork producer in the country, according to an annual analysis conducted by Successful Farming magazine.
Faircloth's father, Lauch, was the longtime face of Coharie Farms and served in the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 1999.
George Pettus, president of the N.C. Pork Council, said the pork industry has been in an economic crisis for the past two years.
He cited rising grain costs, an average drop of $26 a head for hogs and the emergence of the H1N1 flu, initially called swine flu, which quelled consumer appetites worldwide for pork.
China's pledge last week to lift its ban on U.S. pork products offers some hope.
Pettus, while not commenting specifically on Coharie Farms, asked that North Carolina corn farmers remain patient with pork producers.
``The majority of pork-producing companies are here to stay,'' Pettus said. ``Everyone just needs to conduct business as usual.''
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