Prices for kosher meats and poultry are on average 15% higher than they were just before the raid on the Agriprocessors plant on May 12th. While there are still retailers that say that their prices have not risen, they are by far in the minority. The retailers point out that even non-kosher meat and poultry products have gone up by as much as 5%, but nowhere near the increases in the kosher market. In the Five Towns in New York, customers are likely paying 10% higher, while in Baltimore the increase is closer to 15%. In a survey of retailers around the country, the average increase was 15%, including such markets as Los Angeles, Miami, and Atlanta.
Much of the increases are due to the upheaval created by the federal raid on Agriprocessors on May 12th, which has since replaced many of the workers. The immediate fallout of the raid was a shortage of meat on many supermarket shelves resulting in an almost immediate price increase by competitors. Some sources say that many of the kosher stores have yet to pass on general increases in commodity prices which have resulted in 3% – 5% increases in the price of meat and poultry. Experts expect that the average price increase would reach nearly 20% in advance of the upcoming Jewish holidays.
(Sara Cohen for Kosher Today)
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11 Responses
Wow! So from this article one is being persuaded to be in favor of illegal (illegal means against the law) immigrants in order to have affordable, kosher meat?
I can understand those who have saved money hiring illegals being upset at this. It hit their pocketbooks, but since when do you have to allow illegal enterprises to be part of the affordability of being a Jew?
so what? going to eat less meat – will be more healthy…
I would think that with the cost of transporting the meat and buying animal feed the price would rise anyway.
I think all of you bloggers are off the mark. No one is advocating a violation of the law. But, it is very well known that ICE agents are under orders not to check Halal meat plants for violations. And, just go to the front page of the New York Crimes dated 7/28/08. You will see the blatant anti-semitism of the self-hating Jew Arthur Sulzberger.
Gas prices we can’t control. At least the price of meat we CAN control. DO NOT BUY MEAT! I do not know anyone that ever died from not eating meat.
I am NOT advocating becoming a vegetarian. Eat chicken and eat meat at chasunahs!
If most people stopped buying meat the prices will come down. Go-d will not punish us because we did not eat meat for shabbos and yom tov.
Can’t afford it? You don’t like the prices? DO NOT BUY MEAT!!
I personally have always felt that the price of kosher meat is inflated beyond the additional costs of production. It truly is a “cash cow” – pun intended. Rather than raise prices, they should maintain prices until the kosher price is less inflated compared to treif meat. I agree with #5 – don’t buy meat until the prices come down. My husband has been trying to convince me to go vegetarian for quite some time. Hmmm…
What good is eating chicken going to do? Doesn’t that come from Rubashkins also? And we already were dealing with prices inflated due to the ethanol nonsense.
Well, the Nine Days are just about here… think prices will go down then?
Rebshalom, just go to the Debbie Schlussel website and you will find the source to my information. Oh, by the way, do you know how to learn? I think Rashi says,”Halacha be’yadua she’Eisav sonei Yaakov.” So, before you make any more of your moronic statements again and publicly humiliate me, why don’t you get your facts straight? Or, are you addicted to making false accusations against me and making a total fool out of yourself?
Oh, by the way “nfgo”, a public apology from you and a great big serving of humble meat pie which is bais yosef glatt would be the only prescription for a individual like you.
#9, it’s not a secret, it’s “supply and demand” – we’re simply trying to fiddle with the “demand” end of things. And it *has* worked before – read last week’s Mishpacha magazine. There was an article about how 100 years ago, Jewish women in New York boycotted the kosher meat industry and DID bring prices down.
The reason prices are so high is because the kosher consumer has no alternative, so the kosher supplier can charge very high prices and get them – “high” meaning a profit margin above the cost of production way beyond the profit margin on treif meat. The only way to combat these high prices is through a takanah, which is unlikely to happen, or if people refuse to pay the high prices.
Unfortunately, a boycott is also unlikely to happen. Too many naive kosher consumers say, well, the price is fair – it costs a lot to pay the Mexicans to sprinkle salt on the meat…
#14: The citation is the Family First section of Mishpacha magazine from about two weeks ago. I had read the story somewhere else before as well. Also, I include chicken in teh meat boycott. Boycott both chicken and meat until the prices come down. Rubashkin and several other glatt kosher prodcuers have recently been hit with a federal investigation into price-fixing! I didn;t even know that when I posted the above comments, I just read it about 5 minutes ago. But it proves my point.
Furthermore, let’s take for example, chicken nuggets from meal mart or rubashkin. They charge waaaay more than treif, supposedly because kosher chicken costs more. But if you read teh ingredients, they mix teh chicken breast meat with “mechanically separated chicken” AND soy protein, so you’re getting a mixture of white meat, chicken parts (yes, I have found feathers), and tons of fillers, such as soy, so they can use less chicken. They’re charging twice as much, but the product contains like half the chicken, and even that is of poor quality (mechanically separated chicken means it’s the parts which are not meat – beaks, feet, etc. – I have even found feathers in a chicken patty – ewwwww!
By charging so much money, they are stealing food out of my children’s mouths – and by putting this garbage in, they are also stealing my children’s nutrition. Which is whyI don’t buy processed products like this. (But by charging so much even for unprocessed chicken, they’re also stealing food from my children, because I can’t afford to feed them as much as they need.)
Don’t be afraid to look at the ingredients of a box of treif chicken nuggets. It’s not treif to touch, only to eat – and it’s not maris ayin – it looks like you’re searching for a heksher – or go to a far away store and look. They ONLY put white meat chicken into it. So we’re paying twice as much for half the chicken – in other words, four times as much as the treif product, with less nutrition.
Kosher consumers, I think it’s time to demand fair prices and quality products.