4
CapitalPress.com
June 29, 2018
Defunct Oregon beef packer seeks to pay out $600,000
Bartels Packing
shut down in March
but has continued
selling inventory
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A defunct Oregon beef
packer wants to pay out more
than $600,000 of the $1.3
million in USDA trust claims
that cattle suppliers have filed
against it.
Bartels Packing of Eu-
gene, Ore., shut down in
March, citing declining sales
and the loss of a major cus-
tomer, among other factors. A
court-appointed receiver has
since overseen the company’s
dissolution.
Under the federal law, cer-
tain assets of meat packers
are held in trust for the repay-
ment of cash livestock sellers,
who must file claims to obtain
the funds. Livestock suppli-
ers who sell their animals to
packers on credit generally
aren’t protected by the trust.
The USDA has received
more than $1.3 million in trust
claims since Bartels closed,
with the agency determining
that about $624,000 of those
claims are valid.
The receiver hasn’t yet fin-
ished analyzing the remaining
claims, some of which the
USDA has determined aren’t
valid under the Packers and
Stockyards Act.
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Chris and Kandi Bartels, who own defunct beef processor Bartels
Packing, have closed the business but expect to have enough as-
sets to repay debts, including $4.6 million owed to cattle suppliers.
Pivotal Solutions, the re-
ceiver, has now asked a judge
for permission to turn over the
$624,000 “after holding back
a reasonable amount for the
estate to be able to maintain
the necessary liquidity” of the
operation as it dissolves.
The majority of livestock
suppliers who’d receive pay-
ment are auction yards, with
the largest claim — about
$330,000 — owed to Toppen-
ish Livestock Commission of
Toppenish, Wash.
Though Bartels has shut
down, the receiver is using its
facilities to re-process certain
cuts and sell meat to make
money available for creditors.
The USDA hasn’t object-
ed to the receiver’s request,
which will be the subject of a
hearing scheduled for July 23
in Lane County Circuit Court
in Eugene.
When Bartels Packing
closed, it claimed to have
roughly $14 million to cover
its $8.3 million in liabilities,
including nearly $4.7 million
owed to cattle suppliers and
feedlots.
Documents filed in the
receivership case show that
representatives of Pivotal
Solutions have actively been
trying to sell the company’s
facilities, which include a
processing plant and slaugh-
terhouse.
The receiver has had nu-
merous meetings, tours,
emails and phone calls with
undisclosed potential buyers
and held talks with local gov-
ernment representatives and
state economic development
officials, according to invoic-
es submitted to the court.
Twin Fire sparks northeast of Boise
Capital Press
U.S. Forest Service crews
on June 25 responded to a
wildfire in steep terrain near
Arrowrock Reservoir north-
east of Boise.
The Twin Fire ignited
about 10 miles northeast of
the intersection of Idaho 21
and National Forest System
Road 268, which runs along
the Middle Fork Boise River.
The fire at midday was
about 65 acres and 30 percent
contained. The cause is still
under investigation, Boise
National Forest spokesman
Michael Williamson said. It
was burning on steep terrain
of grass and brush.
Crews aimed to contain the
Twin Fire fully by late after-
noon June 26, he said.
As of June 25, the fire in-
Don Jenkins/Capital Press File
Cranberries are harvested by Juan Hernandez and Alison Hilson in a bog in southwest Washing-
ton in 2015. The European Union and Mexico have imposed retaliatory tariffs on some cranberry
products. China is scheduled to impose tariffs July 6.
EU slaps tariffs on U.S.
cranberry concentrate
Capital Press
Tariffs imposed by the
European Union on Friday
will apply to less than one-
third of the U.S. cranberry
products sold to the 28-coun-
try trading bloc, but will still
hurt, according to The Cran-
berry Institute, an industry
group,
The EU put a 25 percent
tariff on cranberry concen-
trate. The EU did not, how-
ever, extend the tariff to sweet
dried cranberries, a product
that has enjoyed duty-free en-
try into Europe since 2011.
The U.S. cranberry indus-
try sells $127 million worth
of products annually to the
EU, its largest foreign mar-
ket. Cranberry concentrate, a
by-product of making dried
cranberries, makes up $41
million of that, according to
the institute.
“Tariffs on U.S. cranber-
ries will be very detrimental
to our industry,” the institute’s
LEGAL
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Unit 180:
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executive director, Terry
Humfeld, said in a statement.
The cranberry industry has
become caught up in emerg-
ing trade wars between the
U.S. and trading partners.
U.S. cranberry products face
retaliatory tariffs from China
and Mexico, as well as the
EU.
The U.S. is the world’s
top cranberry producer, but
annual domestic consumption
has been stuck at just under 2
pounds per person for many
years. About one-third of the
U.S. crop is exported, accord-
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Agricultural Service.
Humfeld, who was un-
available for an interview
Tuesday, said in the statement
that the U.S. cranberry indus-
try has spent decades cultivat-
ing the European market. He
said the tariff may hurt Euro-
peans.
“Since there is no domes-
tic cranberry industry in the
EU, costs could increase for
manufacturers, leading to
higher prices for consumers
or reduced access to cranber-
ries,” Humfeld said.
Canada, the second-largest
Capital Press
An agricultural labor
amendment was stripped from
a compromise Republican bill
on immigration and DACA
before the bill was defeated
Wednesday on the floor of the
U.S. House.
Rep. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash., said he expects
changes for ag labor to get a
standalone vote before the Au-
gust recess.
The compromise bill, HR
6136, was defeated 121-300,
faring worse than the more
conservative HR 4760 that
was defeated 193-231 a week
earlier.
Newhouse, who voted
against HR 4760, said he voted
for HR 6136 as “the best op-
portunity to make substantive
improvements to our broken
immigration system….”
“If our nation’s farmers are
to continue providing food for
America and the world, it is
incumbent on Congress to act
to address labor needs. I thank
the speaker (Paul Ryan) for
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LEGAL
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MEETING (OTAC)
WHEN: July 11, 2018
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26-2/999
Associated Press File
The U.S. House has rejected another immigration reform bill.
Agricultural labor provisions had been stripped from the bill. They
will be voted on in July, supporters say.
committing to hold a vote on
this matter in July,” Newhouse
said in a statement.
Michael Marsh, president
and CEO of the Nation-
al Council for Agricultural
Employers, in Washington,
D.C., told Capital Press that
leadership initially included
the ag amendment — that
included E-verify (electron-
ic verification of employ-
ment eligibility) and a new
H-2C-visa guestworker pro-
gram — to get the Freedom
Caucus (the most conserva-
tive GOP members) to vote
for the bill.
It didn’t work. Those mem-
bers opposed the bill because
it contained a pathway to cit-
izenship for DACA (Deferred
Action of Childhood Arrivals)
LEGAL
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CHAPTER 819
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26-2/999
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•
drivers on NFS Road 268 to
use caution due to fire person-
nel and equipment in the area.
“It’s still early in the sea-
son, but it is a reminder we are
in fire season,” he said.
By DAN WHEAT
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reserves the right to
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volved about 90 firefighters,
three engines, two helicop-
ters, and fire prevention and
investigative personnel. No
road or area closures were in
effect, but Williamson urged
Immigration bill fails in U.S. House
cranberry producer, appears
poised to fill the demand.
Canadian cranberry produc-
tion doubled between 2006
and 2017, according to the
USDA. Canada and the EU
signed a trade agreement last
fall that removed tariffs on
Canadian cranberries. The
deal eliminated an advantage
the U.S. had enjoyed. The EU
suspended duties on Ameri-
can sweet dried cranberries
imported to use as ingredients
in 2011. Exports to Europe
then surged, according to the
USDA.
Chile, the third-largest
cranberry producer, has had a
duty-free agreement with the
EU since 2012.
Mexico, which like the
EU was reacting to U.S. tar-
iffs on steel and aluminum,
applied a 20 percent tariff
on sweet dried cranberries in
early June. Next up, China is
scheduled to increase tariffs
on sweet dried cranberries to
40 percent from 15 percent on
July 6.
The U.S. sells about $45
million worth of cranberries
to China annually, according
to Humfeld.
26-2/100
By DON JENKINS
Associated Press File
Firefighters hoped to control a wildfire northeast of Boise sometime
Tuesday.
recipients.
The ag amendment con-
tained improvements on ag
workers that ag employers like
and should work well for a
vote, Marsh said.
“Reps. Newhouse, Jeff
Denham and David Valadao
(the latter two California Re-
publicans) did a terrific job
negotiating substantive chang-
es. It gives us a good spot go-
ing forward if we get another
chance,” Marsh said.
In particular, the secretary
of agriculture would be able to
match the number of H-2C vi-
sas to market demand the first
two years before a cap would
be implemented.
That’s an improvement,
Marsh said, but “having a cap
is ridiculous. The government
shouldn’t be deciding how
many workers you need, farm-
ers should.”
Current unlawful workers
and H-2A-visa workers would
not count against the cap and
there would be an automatic
escalator to increase the cap if
it were met on non-meat and
poultry processing visas, ac-
cording to a House Judiciary
Committee bill summary.
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