Meat Industry Groups Approve Merger Into One

American Meat Institute will join the North American Meat Association now that the general members of the AMI voted to join into one group.

The general members of the American Meat Institute gave their approval last week to join their organization with the North American Meat Association, the final step in the merger of the two largest meat-industry groups in the United States they say will occur on January 2015.

The boards of the two groups had previously voted yes to the merger, which is being touted as an opportunity for the meat industry, which has faced a barrage of public-relations problems in recent years, to adopt a "consumer oriented" focus. 

“The General Membership’s unanimous vote today makes possible the formation of a new and stronger organization, well-positioned to meet the challenges of the future,” AMI chairman Greg Benedict, chief operating officer and president of American Foods Group, who serves on the merger committee, said in a statement. “Our two organizations now will create a transition committee to begin the process of merging our two organizations’ operations and governing structure. This is a positive development and one that stands to serve our industry well.”

According to this article on FoodDive.com, NAMA is the product of a merger in 2012 of the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP) and the National Meat Association (NMA). The NMA was the result of a merger in 1996 of the Western States and Mountain/Plains meat associations. Now NAMA is merging with the giant of the meat business -- the century-old AMI.

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