A fire at a processing plant in northeast Iowa is expected to reduce kosher beef production by more than 10 percent.
Rabbi Moshe Elefant is the CEO of OU Kosher, the largest kosher certification agency in the world. He says extensive damage to AgriStar Meat and Poultry in Postville will keep the facility offline for an unknown length of time.
“And that’s a hole that really needs to be filled. And because kosher slaughter is so very unique, it’s not something like where they could go down the block or go somewhere else and get product from there.”
He tells Brownfield other kosher facilities should be able to pick up the slack for poultry.
“The issue that really is of greater concern is beef. There are not that many slaughterhouses in the United States that are killing kosher beef because it so so complicated and so different.”
Rabbi Elefant says kosher meat supplies were already tight, and demand is expected to increase with Jewish holidays beginning in early September.
