Arapaho ranch ends link with Whole Foods
By Martin Reed
Staff Writer

The Northern Arapaho Tribe’s certified organic ranch in central Wyoming is determining where next to sell its grass-fed beef after a deal ended to distribute the product at Whole Foods Market’s Rocky Mountain stores.
“We’ll just go the direction we feel is best for the ranch and the tribe at the time we need to make the decision,” ranch general manager David Stoner said in a phone interview on Friday.
“The (Northern Arapaho) Business Council’s well- informed and they’re looking at all the different options, and they’ll make the decision that makes the most sense,” Stoner said.
The Arapaho Ranch’s distribution deal started in early 2009. It ended in past weeks when financial issues arose with California-based Panorama Meats Inc., the beef distributor that set up the deal, Stoner said.
“What happened is we had voluntarily taken a price cut last fall in October of ’09. And then with the understanding by January we would be back to our original price and maybe more,” Stoner said.
“First off we didn’t get the price increases in January and in the meantime the commodity price on beef jumped 25 percent. At the price we were being paid we were losing money against the commodity market,” he said.
“We could have sold our cattle into the commodity market for more money than we were selling to Panorama,” he said.
“We figured, based on the increase in the commodity market, we needed a certain price which was a 29 percent increase.”
Panorama CEO Mack Graves told The Associated Press on Wednesday increase was the reason for the deal ending because it was too much.
“That’s a heck of a jump in one fell swoop,” Graves said.
Stoner said the increase did not mean Whole Foods taking the brunt of the price hike.
“In order for Panorama to continue to get their same margins they were always getting from us — and that was 18 percent — all they would have needed from Whole Foods is a 10 percent increase on the wholesale price on the product. You don’t pass the whole thing onto your retailers,” he said.
“We wanted to get Panorama back at the table and we had to draw a line in the sand and say, listen, we want to continue working with Panorama but we didn’t feel like we were getting the information we needed to make the best decisions possible for the ranch,” Stoner said.
Both groups said the deal ending was unfortunate.
“We wish the best for Panorama and Whole Foods,” Stoner said. “It took several months to get the program up and going and it ended so quickly. That’s the real tragedy.”
Graves said about the dealing falling apart, “It was just a shame.”
The Arapaho Ranch initially shipped a couple loads of cattle to Panorama in February 2009, but the deliveries increased to about 40 head a week starting in April that year.
In all the ranch delivered about 1,800 head for distribution at 28 Whole Foods stores in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Kansas.
“It was unfortunate but it really came down to economics. The tribe had to make a decision that at the time made the most sense for us, simply because we were losing money by the time we shipped the cattle to Colorado Springs for slaughter,” Stoner said.
“We were losing money against the commodity market.”
Part of the problem with ensuring the organic certification for the ranch’s cattle is growing animals during the cold winter months when grass is thin, he said.
“If we enter into any sort of agreement in the future with a retailer we would like to do something seasonal, six to eight months instead of doing it year-round. That’s hard to do,” Stoner said.
But the demand continues to persist nationwide for the organic, grass-fed beef, which is leaner than grain-fed beef and healthier for consumption, he added.
“Even though we believe strongly in what we’re doing we’re not doing this to lose money.
“We believe in sustainable ranching but part of sustainability is economics and we have to make this work economically,” Stoner said.
The Arapaho Ranch grass-fed beef continues to remain available in Fremont County at the tribe’s store in Ethete and the 789 Casino south of Riverton.
But the beef sold in county does not carry the federal organic certification because it is not processed in a facility that has the certification.
“Things look promising overall in the beef industry, but whether we make the decision to sell into the conventional market this fall or continue to try to develop a program in grass-fed organic, we’ll just have to see what it looks like in another month or two,” Stoner said.