Every year around this time, we start making plans to announce the Independent Processor of the Year. Each year, we’ve highlighted one small or mid-sized processor that in our opinion exemplifies all the best qualities of that sector of the industry.
This year was such an unexpected, abnormal year, that it proved to be an impossible task. As in, how do we narrow it down to one company, when so many small processors out there have acted heroically to keep pumping out products at a time when their demand shot through the roof? When the worst tendencies of the largest corporations have dominated the headlines, so many small processors completely overhauled their operations to keep their employees safe. When people did get sick, they shut down to sanitize and regroup – not because the county Board of Health or bad publicity shut them down, but because it was the safest thing to do. So many processors have increased the transparency between themselves and their customers, explaining cleaning procedures, facts and myths about meat shortages and how it will affect prices. When their foodservice clientele closed down, they adapted to new sales strategies. Nobody said at the start of the year, “I’m going to overhaul our manufacturing, retail, distribution and communications efforts within 48 hours.” But many companies had to do just that.