Immigration raid linked to kosher decline

POSTVILLE, Iowa, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- The declining supply of kosher meat supplies nationwide is due in part to an immigration raid on an Agriprocessors kosher-meat plant in Iowa, observers say.

Store owners used to a ready supply of Aaron's Best kosher meat supplies from the company say garnering such goods has become problematic since a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid May 12, USA Today said Thursday.

"Stores like mine are struggling all over," Rabbi Yossi Jacobson, the owner of Glatt Kosher Deli in Des Moines, Iowa, said.

The raid of an Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, resulted in 389 illegal immigrant workers being detained.

The loss of those workers forced the plant to cease production and led to Agriprocessors filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, USA Today said.

The company had once been responsible for producing an estimated 60 percent of all kosher meat products nationwide. It revealed in its bankruptcy filing that its debts to creditors ranged between $50 million and $100 million.