From Boom To Bust: Midwest Chicken Company In Trouble

PURE PRAIRIE POULTRY

The chicken industry has had its ups and downs over the past few years. Prices in July of 2022 were at an all-time high but began to plummet three months later. Many chicken producers have shut down operations in recent years, including Cooks Ventures based out of Arkansas in 2023, and Do-Good Foods out of New Jersey in June of this year.

AFFECTING MINNESOTA

Now a midwestern company has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Pure Prairie Poultry sells its chicken in six Midwestern states including Minnesota.

The Pure Prairie Poultry brand is sold at Coborn's grocery stores.

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A COMBINATION OF FINANCIAL WOES

The company had qualified for approximately $39 million under the Federal Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program in April of 2022 to help cover the costs of upgrading their plant.

Unfortunately, poultry prices plummeted in October of 2022, and at the same time, the debtor received $7 million in federal grant funds which the company planned on using as gap funding until it received the larger loan proceeds. Because it took so long for the closing of the federal loan, things didn't go the way they had hoped they would.

According to court papers, the delay in federal funding took a huge toll on the company with nearly $38 million in operating losses.

It's hard to watch this company fail, as it was trying to improve its plant, but with the delay in the funding they needed, and refurbishing delaying the launch of their products by nine months, it was just too much for the company to continue.