Northwest Meat Processor's Association

10/10/2026

10/10/2026

It is nice to see about half of those on this top 10 are members! Of course, there's a whole host we would recommend also deserve recognition but its good to see people recognized for their hard work!

Butcher paper, a twine-tied stack of steaks, smoked sausage still warm from the back room, and someone behind the counter who remembers your order. These Oregon meat markets sell bulk freezer packs that make the supermarket case look like a bad deal, and the locals who shop them tend to keep that quiet.

09/14/2026

The comments are good on this one.

Recently, a U.S. citizen who was a Global Entry participant was stopped at Seattle-Tacoma Int'l Airport after failing to declare 18.6 lbs of pork and 0.88 lbs of deer sausage. Second violation—Global Entry revoked. Concealed items were seized and a $500 penalty issued.

09/02/2026

Thought this was an interesting take.

09/01/2026

Worth resharing from one of our members.

I do not mean this post to be rude to this commenter, but this makes me feel like we are not all speaking the same language (custom exempt, state inspected, federal inspected) here.

Custom exempt is a niche market of processing that is done for the owner / end user of the animal.
Each product is marked “not for sale” and not for distribution into retail: meaning stores or restaurants, even farm stands or farmers markets, any of the byproducts, etc.
Because the processing is done for the owner of the animal alone, we are “exempt” from federal inspection.

Truthfully, I love this industry so much.
This is the way it should be.
Custom exempt has my whole heart. I don’t have a lot of passion in my heart for getting infrastructure licensed as a federal slaughterhouse, a haacp plan, all that paperwork, federal inspectors, the works.
I enjoy our work as is: which fills local people’s freezers, with local meat, from local farms.

This is a bit of a “buyer beware” industry, but like I have stated: I personally would trust every custom exempt processor I have ever met over a federally inspected mega slaughterhouse somewhere far away.

Custom exempt means:
A farmer raises a beef —>
sells it to an individual—>
us with a licensed facility for processing that is inspected for safety practices but doesn’t have an on site federal inspector processes it for them —>
Customer picks up from us, puts it in their own freezer, eats it, end of story. 

Does that mean we can sell or give away unwanted byproducts: no, but at the end of the day, that isn’t really what matters most here.

We are in an integral part of a small local supply chain for farm direct meat, and that is our whole desire and purpose.

08/18/2026

07/31/2026

Check out a great article about our friends at Lone Crow Meats. Great people and a great article highlighting how far they've come.

07/11/2026

Beef demand disaggregated https://share.google/h5ylAZH68uSI19y7z