Rastelli Foods & Seminole Tribe Partner To Raise Native American Beef

The Seminole Indians of Florida, Inc. & Rastelli Foods Group Announce Strategic Partnership To Bring Native American Beef To The Worldwide Marketplace SWEDESBORO, NJ 9/27/08 -- International food and meat processing industry leader Rastelli Foods Group is pleased to announce the signing of an agreement with The Seminole Indians of Florida, Inc. which will dramatically expand the national and worldwide distribution of beef raised by Native American cattle ranchers. By the terms of the deal signed earlier this week by CEO Ray Rastelli and Seminole Tribe President Richard Bowers, the Rastelli Foods Group has agreed to purchase the herds of Native American cattle ranchers across the country under the Seminole Native American Beef brand. Under the terms of this landmark business alliance Rastelli will work with Native American ranchers to procure, manage the feeding, harvesting, and distribution of beef from an estimated 100,000 head of cattle. Most of these premium Angus cattle herds are being raised on Indian Reservation lands throughout the United States.The Seminoles, for instance, manage more than 15,000 head of cattle on two reservations in Florida, making the tribe one of the state's largest cattle operations.   According to Ray Rastelli this arrangement grew out of a successful business relationship between his company and the Seminole Indian Tribe in which Rastelli has been providing top quality beef and specialty meat products to the tribal owned Hard Rock Casino operations in Florida. "As commercial customers of our premium meats the Seminoles were extremely impressed with the consistently high quality of Rastelli products used in their casino properties," explains Rastelli. "They recognized that we have been able to maintain the highest standards of quality in the industry by a program of purchasing cattle herds on the hoof and guaranteeing the quality by assuming total management control from feeding and harvesting to global distribution to the Rastelli network of 20,000 retail, commercial and institutional customers." Rastelli adds that Richard L. Segal, National Director of Business Development U S Foodservice was highly instrumental in taking the Rastelli and Seminole Indian relationship to this important next level. The Rastelli - Seminole pact is part of the Native American Group effort spearheaded by Seminole President Richard Bowers which has created a consortium of tribes returning to their economic roots, with members buying from and selling to each other in a collective approach to economic growth and prosperity in Indian Country. In addition to the Seminoles of Florida, early participants in the consortium are the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Connecticut; the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, California; the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, Oregon; the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota; the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, North and South Dakota; the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Washington; the Campo Kumeyaay Nation, California; and the Yankton Sioux Tribe, South Dakota. The Native American Group initiative will be officially unveiled at an event at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. last week. Ray Rastelli has been invited to attend the event and make a presentation. For over two decades Rastelli Foods Group has been feeding everyone from casino high rollers to US combat troops, as well as servicing 20,000 hotels, restaurants, schools, institutions and supermarkets in over 88 countries. The international industry journal Meat Processing Magazine called Rastelli "arguably the finest portion-processing operation in the United States today." This alliance with the Seminole Tribe and Native American ranchers is part of a broad reaching brand development program which will involve the introduction of up to 10 new brands in the next several years. Some of these brands include: Tony Luke's Philly Sandwiches, El Wingador Chicken Wings, Mesa Fresh! Southwest Specialties, Chris Therion "Bundy's" Chili and C.W. Harborside Seafood & Steaks, as well as the online www.RastelliAtHome.com direct sales of premium steaks and specialty meat products already produced by Rastelli companies. These brands will be introduced as packaged foods and will also be developed into retail chains of quick service restaurants.

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