Subject: Chicken Growers Upset
Chicken Growers Upset Over Contract with Processing Plant
KNOE-TV
A group of area independent poultry producers has sued an Arcadia
processing company for compensatory and punitive damages for
allegedly ignoring signed contracts with them. The growers say new
company demands amounted to nothing short of a scheme to deplete
their finances while substantially increasing profits for the
company. TV8's Ken Booth reports from Union Parish. The chicken
growers say arbitrary, unreasonable and highly expensive demands
they upgrade their chicken houses was part of a scheme to fatten
their supplier's profits while providing a means by which the
farmers are cut out of the supply chain completely. Seven area
poultry producers have sued Raeford Farms of Louisiana based in
Arcadia along with its North Carolina-based parent corporation,
seeking unspecified damages for fraud, misrepresentation, and unjust
enrichment. The plaintiffs say they were required by Raeford to
financially encumber their property to a sole use leaving them
totally at the mercy of the company which has now notified each of
them, they will receive no more flocks from Raeford. The petition
alleges the end result of Raeford's actions is the designed ability
of the company to wrongfully control its cost of operations while
maintaining undue financial dominance over the plaintiffs...
The lawsuit says the alleged fraud constitutes a willful, wanton,
intentional and malicious disregard for the rights of the plaintiffs
and the public at-large which is dependent upon company's like
Raeford Farms to maintain at least a modicum of basic business
standards and societal morality in their dealings with poultry
growers. Ken Booth, TV8 News, Bernice.
Chicken Growers Upset Over Contract with Processing Plant
KNOE-TV
A group of area independent poultry producers has sued an Arcadia
processing company for compensatory and punitive damages for
allegedly ignoring signed contracts with them. The growers say new
company demands amounted to nothing short of a scheme to deplete
their finances while substantially increasing profits for the
company. TV8's Ken Booth reports from Union Parish. The chicken
growers say arbitrary, unreasonable and highly expensive demands
they upgrade their chicken houses was part of a scheme to fatten
their supplier's profits while providing a means by which the
farmers are cut out of the supply chain completely. Seven area
poultry producers have sued Raeford Farms of Louisiana based in
Arcadia along with its North Carolina-based parent corporation,
seeking unspecified damages for fraud, misrepresentation, and unjust
enrichment. The plaintiffs say they were required by Raeford to
financially encumber their property to a sole use leaving them
totally at the mercy of the company which has now notified each of
them, they will receive no more flocks from Raeford. The petition
alleges the end result of Raeford's actions is the designed ability
of the company to wrongfully control its cost of operations while
maintaining undue financial dominance over the plaintiffs...
The lawsuit says the alleged fraud constitutes a willful, wanton,
intentional and malicious disregard for the rights of the plaintiffs
and the public at-large which is dependent upon company's like
Raeford Farms to maintain at least a modicum of basic business
standards and societal morality in their dealings with poultry
growers. Ken Booth, TV8 News, Bernice.