A deal for Whole Foods Market to sell the Northern Arapaho’s organic, grass-fed beef has fallen through, a beef distributor said Wednesday. Panorama Meats, which bought the beef from the tribe in Wyoming and sold it to Whole Foods, said the agreement ended in March when tribal officials asked for a 29 percent price increase.
“That’s a heck of a jump in one fell swoop,” said Mack Graves, chief executive of Vina, Calif.-based Panorama.
Graves said the increase was more than Whole Foods wanted to pay. Officials of the tribe and Whole Foods didn’t immediately return phone messages.
Panorama was buying about 40 head a week from the tribe, Graves said. Whole Foods — based in Austin, Texas — was selling the beef at its stores in Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Utah.
The deal, struck in April 2009, called for the tribe to get $1,400 per head. Panorama said at the time it was about 25 percent more than conventional beef fetches. The Associated Press
