Posted on 08/24/2010 3:19:23 PM PDT by Radix
A Walpole firm that sells seafood and other food products to military commissaries around the world has been caught up in the bureaucratic nets at the Pentagon.
Alder Foods Inc., which has sold its frozen Rainbow Seafood Company shrimp and other food items to military personnel for 45 years, says it will probably have to close up shop by the end of the year unless the Pentagon reverses a recent rule change that the firm says will sink its operations.
“I can seriously say we will not be a business anymore,” said Michelle Keating, chief executive of the 30-employee Alder Foods.
The fishy tale started in 1996, when a law was passed that banned the sale of private-label products at military grocery stores unless they were also commercially sold elsewhere.
Alder, which only sells to the military, won an exemption from the law because it had sold its private-label frozen shrimp, lobster tails and crabmeat for decades to military commissaries.
But a sore-loser contractor from Illinois recently complained about the grandfather exemptions, so the U.S. Defense Commissary Agency cracked down on all private-label sellers, Keating said.
Alder doesn’t have time before the end of the year - the military’s deadline for complying with the law - to get its seafood products sold at non-military outlets, Keating said.
“That hasn’t been our business model,” she said.
The shrimp, lobster tail and crabmeat sales account for $12 million of Alder’s $50 million in annual revenue, according to Keating.
Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Stephen Lynch, both Bay State Democrats, have written to Pentagon brass seeking help for Alder.
But military officials have yet to respond, Keating and others said. Spokesmen for the Department of Defense did not get back to the Herald yesterday with a comment.
Keating said the bureaucratic snafu “particularly hurts” because she’s the former chairwoman of West Roxbury’s Fisher House, the recently built home for families of military heroes wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan. Keating said she helped raise $3 million for Fisher House.
Fisher House loses.
Can’t she get a local store to sell her product or does it have to be a certain percent of sales?
Anyone who has a contract for 50 years was with Uncle Sam is greasing palms. Maybe Kennedy’s death had something to do with it. Kerry found someone willing to pay a bigger bribe.
“The fishy tale started in 1996...”
At least it wasn’t Bush’s fault ...
LOL! Overpriced lobster tails for the military brass kissing the Imam O’s arse.
Let em eat crappie, catfish and mullet. F them!
The Pentagon, CIA, DIA and NSA are infested with muslims now.
LoL.
The service members lose, too.
Don't forget that one of the perks of serving on a submarine is a higher class of chow. They use large quantities of lobster and shrimp. Then there's dining-in nights, military balls, and a lot of other things that are not just for the brass hats.
Fisher House loses. The military member loses. What do the Democrats care?
All whining that makes no sense aside, I think the answer is simply that the company complaining is from Illinois. I really don’t think one has to look much further than that.
If they are infested, then let them “eat bacon”.
The best revenge is living well and become a raging commercial success.
I suggest they start selling to the open market. Screw the Feds!
Having one major customer especially when it is Imam Sam, formerly known as Uncle Sam, is a mistake.
Hmmm, a Kennedy fish company in Massachusetts and a Clinton company, Tyson Meats, in Arkansas the same day!
More Hope and Change for Illinois.
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