CHICAGO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp's decision last week to phase out human antibiotics from its U.S. chicken supply will add to costs of production in a tight-margin business that are likely to be borne mostly by poultry companies.
McDonald's, whose top chicken suppliers include giant Tyson Foods Inc, has given its producers two years to eradicate all antibiotics used on humans from barns and hatcheries. It's going to be expensive and may take longer than planned: switching to antibiotic-free chickens could increase on-farm costs by up to 3 percent. Perdue Farms, a supplier with about a third the volume of Tyson, told Reuters it's taken more than a decade and millions of dollars to make such a change.
McDonald's will use its purchasing muscle as the world's largest restaurant chain to avoid passing extra costs on to customers, increasingly lower income as more affluent diners prefer competitors like Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, said analysts including Morningstar's R.J. Hottovy.
More
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
And now let's add the chicken tax too. This should make Ray Wallace happy.
ReplyDeletePerdue will leave MD and so will I.
Where is this coming from? Antibiotics are administered to fertilized eggs, and never after that by law, right?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I've been reading. And no hormones in feed as well, from reports. Please correct me if I'm wrong?
They won't compromise their profit, that is just a news - lol.
ReplyDelete