Insanely Cheap: Market Forces Took Horsemeat from Farm to Fork

"Donkey meat is found" at two firms at the centre of horse meat scandal probe

Insanely Cheap: Market Forces Took Horsemeat from Farm to Fork.(Spiegel).By SPIEGEL Staff.The current affair in Europe that has seen unlabeled horsemeat appear in store-bought frozen lasagne shows just how widely the demand for insanely cheap prices and murky supply channels have opened the door for fraud. in Germany last week after inspectors discovered that up to 2.8 million packages of lasagna, cannelloni and moussaka by Luxembourg manufacturer Tavola contained not only beef, as indicated on the label, but also horsemeat. Almost all major German food retailing chains, including Edeka, Rewe, Kaiser's Tengelmann and Real, recalled their products and cleared their freezer shelves after it was discovered that nearly 10 percent of the total 1,596 metric tons, or nearly 144 tons, of the convenience meals made by the Luxembourgian company between November 2012 and January 2013 had found its way to Germany. These figures stem from an internal European Commission list that SPIEGEL has obtained. On Friday evening, it was announced that meat products sold by German discounters Aldi and Lidl were also suspected of containing horsemeat. As a precautionary measure, these companies have withdrawn their corresponding products from the market. If the suspicion is confirmed, German manufacturers would now officially be drawn into the scandal.
Intense price pressure from retailers and discounters is forcing food manufacturers to purchase ingredients from all around the world, including preprocessed foodstuffs. This has resulted in enormous flows of goods, and once these products have passed through the hands of three, four or more middlemen before they reach manufacturers, it becomes extremely difficult to trace their origins. This jungle of cross-border trading gives criminals a golden opportunity to re-label commodities. After all, the authorities have little control over what is stored and transferred in Europe's cold storage warehouses.
A prime example is Werk II, a refrigerated warehouse in the western German town of Neuss, which served as a gateway for a large proportion of the allegedly tainted frozen convenience food to enter the country. In December and January alone, at least 14 shipments were unloaded here, and then sent to supermarket chains. The concrete complex in the district of Norf serves as a transshipment center for goods from across Europe. A sign in German, English, French, Spanish, Polish and Russian directs delivering drivers to the reception office.
This is only one of many such warehouses. Last week, the European Commission warned of 310 deliveries from Tavola since August 2012. This concerns the noodle dishes carried by German food retailers -- but the same product was also supplied to Denmark under the "Budget" brand name, delivered to ICA supermarkets in Norway under the "Delish" name, sold in France by leading grocery stores including Casino and Carrefour, and purchased by other customers under the "Findus" brand.
Until late last week, it was still unclear who was actually to blame for the food fiasco. France's consumer affairs minister, Benoit Hamon, alleged that the Spanghero meat processing company was the first participant in the chain to slap a "beef" label on horsemeat. By contrast, a Spanghero spokesman told SPIEGEL that the firm only ordered, received and sold meat that was "reputed to be beef."
Nevertheless, Spanghero also appears to use dubious sources. For some seven years now, the company has been working with Cypriot-registered Draap Trading Ltd., at least according to its Dutch owner, Jan Fasen. Last year, Fasen was tried on charges of fraud and lost in the first instance: He is accused of selling meat labeled as Dutch and German beef, which in reality came from South American horses. The name of the company, Draap, is the reverse spelling of paard, the Dutch word for horse. Hmmmmm......OK....Now we're talking lots of horses, who has that many horses for sale.....or is it Donkey meat?Read the full story here.

Related:  The Source of Horse: A Shadowy Market Ripe for Exploitation