Addressing the Recall

I looked at my schedule for February today and the month is gone. The recall has consumed a lot of time since the 9th of January. I have grower meetings and Wednesday we have our annual research report and Thursday a board meeting that may be quite lengthy. Next week I have meetings witht he State Legislature and then the American Farm Bureau Peanut Committee. The last week is more of hte same with one addition. I will be meeting with my counterparts in Alabama and Florida and we will be re-directing our promotional efforts to fit the needs of our industry caused by the recall.

We have had to spend time to this date working with the media to try to address the issue of a small Georgia manufacturer who seems to have been a bad actor in our industry.

We have also been in discussion with folks in the industry and our elected officials to make every effort from this being able to happen again.

Soon the effort will shift to re-building consumer confidence but this can only be done at a time when the recall is complete and the outbreak has ended.

This will have to be an indsutry wide effort and will need to be done in harmony if we are to get past where we are today. Consumption is off about 25% because of this.