What else would chicken man Jim Perdue order for breakfast but chicken sausage?
In town Friday for a media tour to promote his company's new USDA Process Verified certification, Perdue, 60, stopped to have breakfast at the Flying Biscuit in Raleigh's Cameron Village.
The certification means that USDA officials have audited the company's claims that its chickens have had an all-vegetarian diet and were raised cage-free and humanely. The certification applies to Perdue fresh whole chickens as well as its Fit &Easy line of boneless, skinless chicken.
Perdue - the company, not the man - is redesigning its packaging to prominently display the certification seal and has introduced a Web site where consumers can go for more information about it ( perdueverifiablygood .com ). North Carolina shoppers will be the first to see the new packaging partially because of its proximity to the processing plants.
It took three years for Perdue's 2,200 farmers to implement the changes necessary to get the certification, but Perdue said the moves were necessary.
"Customers are more conscious of what's in the product, how it's raised and what we're doing," Perdue said. "These are all things that used to not be part of the buying decision. Even though this is going to be more costly, we think long term."
Along with his chicken sausage Friday morning, he had scrambled eggs and grits - the grits being something he said he likes to order whenever he travels south from his home in Salisbury, Md.
He gets them quite a bit thanks to visits to the area to visit friends (his wife Jan is from Rocky Mount) and keep an eye on business. His company employs 22,000 people, 4,000 of whom are in North Carolina. The company has processing and egg facilities in Rockingham, Lewiston, Concord, Statesville and Yadkin, and also works with 800 farmers throughout the state.
The third generation of his family to run the company that was started in 1920 on his grandfather's farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Perdue said he is trying to continue to expand the company despite challenging times. Rising costs for corn and declining prices for chicken have put the squeeze on chicken businesses nationwide. But "that's a part of business risk and part of what drives you," he said. "If next quarter's profits drive you, you wouldn't do that."
The USDA certification was a unique way to address customer concerns about unfair treatment of chickens and unnatural products while also changing a product that hasn't experienced much change.
"In our business, the innovation is in the further-processed items," such as Perfect Portions or ready-to-cook strips, he said. "But doing things with the raw side is more difficult. It comes down to taste and tenderness, and those are two things we've been working on for years."
