Meat Associations Join Forces

RESTON and MARSHALL, Va. The National Meat Association (NMA) and the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP) no longer exist as separate entitities. In a joint statement, the two organizations announced they have consolidated into a new association. The target date for the start of the new association is July 1, 2012.

The new association will be one of the larger trade groups in the global meat trade, with more than 700 member companies in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and other countries. Nearly 400 of them are meat processors.

NMA is the successor organization to the Western States Meat Association, which was formed by the mergers of Western States Meat Packers Association, Pacific Coast Meat Association and Mountain/Plains Meat Association. The organization became the National Meat Association in February 1995.

NAMP was established in 1942 as the National Association of Hotel and Restaurant Purveyors. It changed its name several times, most recently in 1996. NAMP developed its Meat Buyers Guide® in 1961, which the new association will continue.