Food Processors Kept Busy Feeding Troops in Mideast
Geo. A. Hormel Co. views all of its customers in the same light: They’re busy people, on the go; they need good food fast and don’t have time to cook. Hormel Top Shelf meals, the company says, are a perfect solution--whether you’re a working mother or a soldier stationed in Saudi Arabia.
So when Uncle Sam called in November, Hormel answered--with 23 million entrees ranging from beef Oriental to glazed breast of chicken, all for $44.6 million.
The Defense Department was looking for a few good meals, “products that were nutritious, portable, fast and easy to fix, ready to eat,” said Gene Hopkins, manager of government sales at the Austin, Minn., firm. “Top Shelf offered all of these advantages. A lot of these are advantages that today’s consumer is looking for, too.”
If it can be freeze-dried, canned or vacuum-packed, you can bet it’s on its way to the Persian Gulf, thanks to the nation’s food processors--the industry that might be the real winner in the Gulf War.
Since Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, the U.S. military has purchased $668.5 million worth of food--about $4.2 million a day--to feed U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.
The shipments have included staples, such as the 6 million pounds of sugar, 4.6 million pounds of flour and 2.4 million pounds of coffee purchased to date. But those raw commodities put the government out only about $7.5 million.
The bulk of the budget, said Col. George Thune, spokesman for the Defense Personnel Support Center in Philadelphia, is going to the U.S. food-processing industry. The support center is the agency that procures uniforms, medical supplies and food for U.S. troops.
Nearly a third of the food budget is going to only four companies: Hormel, Vanee Foods Co., Fisher Foods Ltd. and Oregon Freeze Dry.
Not only are these firms providing the 3,600 calories that fighting men and women need daily, but they are putting innovation into the military menu by infusing it with novel consumer items available on America’s supermarket shelves.
“What we are producing are items that have not been used in other wars,” Thune said.
Hormel is a perfect example of that phenomenon.
During World War II, the company supplied U.S. military personnel with millions of cans of that infamous mystery meat, Spam. Spam is not on the menu during Operation Desert Shield or Operation Desert Storm because it contains pork--a taboo in Moslem Saudi Arabia.
By the time the Korean and Vietnam wars rolled around, the government was producing its own “military-unique rations,” Hopkins said. But that endeavor died in the 1980s, as the armed forces grew more concerned about emergencies and shortages.
“They were always concerned about using military-unique rations, because, in case of emergency, they wouldn’t have the production they needed,” Hopkins said. “They realized that if they relied on those products, there could be shortages. They have broadened their industrial base. Desert Shield has demonstrated a need for more capacity.”
Hormel beefed up its operations by hiring an extra 100 employees and adding second shifts at its two manufacturing plants. At first, civilian Top Shelf consumers faced brief shortages of the product--which is microwaveable and needs no refrigeration--because the company had to dig deep into its inventory so that 4 million meals could be airlifted immediately to the Middle East.
Vanee Foods Inc. of Berkeley, Ill., increased its 115-person work force by 75 and is revamping its plant to the tune of $1.5 million to fulfill its $55-million contract for military food.
But the extra investment is worth it, said Vice President Ron Van Eekeren. In fiscal-year 1990, Vanee did $30 million in sales, so the government contracts for such items as canned puddings, sausage links and lasagna were a “substantial increase.”
Unlike the Hormel products, which can be carried around in soldiers’ pockets, Vanee is making T rations, tray-packs that provide 18 servings of a single item. The food is designed to be cooked in a mess hall--large or small.
“The idea is to serve the hot meal to that individual soldier on a plate rather than have him heat it up on a helicopter blade or in the sand,” Van Eekeren said. “It’s to feed him a hot meal on a plate every day. Somebody’s doing the work for him.”
Oregon Freeze Dry in Albany, Ore., has worked with the military since the company opened in 1963, but the Persian Gulf War has been its biggest boon. Oregon Freeze Dry supplies canned, freeze-dried meats to the Defense Department, which ships them overseas after combining them with other foods for a complete meal.
“Our contract is for $62 million, and it’s the largest contract we’ve ever received from the government,” said Monda Lengkeek, administrative assistant to the president of Oregon Freeze Dry. “We’ll be providing approximately over 3 million cans.”
The executive order authorizing use of force in the Persian Gulf set into place a mechanism that allows the military to cut to the head of any line to obtain food for the 430,000 troops in Saudi Arabia.
But Thune said it is an authority that hasn’t been exercised since World War II, one that military officials do not expect to need in the fight against Saddam Hussein. As a result, he said, consumers should not feel any impact from the military’s food efforts.
American farmers will feel little impact either, said Terry Francl, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation in Chicago. The reason is that there is little real new food buying, merely someone else doing the purchasing.
“There is no shift in demand--just a change or different routing of what is essentially the same amount of food,” Francl said. “Someone who used to consume at home and buy his own food--because he’s in the National Guard--now it’s the Army buying his food, not him.”
But Michael Fisher, president of Fisher Food Ltd. in Lincoln, Neb., said there may be some regional impact as purchasing is shifted from one part of the country to another. That’s what his company, which has a $14-million contract to supply dehydrated scrambled eggs to the military, is finding.
“For agriculture, it’s a boon to certain areas of the country now, where the processors are,” Fisher said. “It’s a regional boon. In this area, where we didn’t have very many military bases compared to down south, the egg market is much better and we’re buying more dairy products.”
FIGHTING FOOD From Aug. 2 to date, the Department of Defense has purchased a whopping $668.5 million worth of food to provision troops in Operation Desert Shield/Storm. Most of that money has gone to U.S. food processors. Here are a few examples:
Geo. A. Hormel & Co., Austin, Minn. In November, the government ordered $44.6 million worth of the firm’s Top Shelf ready-to-eat dinners, in varieties ranging from glazed breast of chicken to chili con carne.
Vanee Foods Co., Berkeley, Ill. In December, Vanee received a $55-million order for vacuum-packed “T rations,” big cans filled with enough items such as breakfast sausage links or lasagna to feed 18 soldiers.
Fisher Foods Ltd., Lincoln, Neb. Troops in Saudi Arabia will be eating $14 million worth of Fisher’s dehydrated scrambled eggs.
Oregon Freeze Dry, Albany, Ore. Oregon Freeze Dry is shipping more than $62 million worth of freeze-dried pork chops, chicken and beef pieces for use in preparing main courses for the troops.
