RECOVERY - Consumer Pack Whole Chickens

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced plans to purchase frozen consumer pack chickens for use in domestic food nutrition assistance programs. These purchases will be made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) of 2009. Offers will be invited from the trade for frozen U.S. Grade A ready-to-cook young chickens, with neck and giblets or without neck and giblets. Individual chickens must weigh 3 to 5.5 pounds (1.36 to 2.5 kg) per carcass weighed without neck and giblets. The commodity must be commercially labeled and packed in individual plastic-film bags with 10-12 chickens per fiberboard shipping container. A purchase unit will total 39,600 pounds (17,962 kg). Invitation No. 1, inviting offers due by 12 noon, Central Time, Monday, April 27, was issued on Tuesday, April 21. Acceptances will be announced by midnight, Friday, May 1, for product to be delivered from May 16 to June 30. All offers must be submitted electronically through the Domestic Electronic Bid Entry System (DEBES) website at https://pcsd.usda.gov:3077/mdbc1000.exe?. Offers submitted by any means other than DEBES will be considered nonresponsive. There are some important changes to this program. As stated in the Notice to the Trade dated April 17, 2009, offerors must certify with their offer that they have read and agree to comply with reporting requirements in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Clause 52.204-11 - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Under the food defense requirements, all non-conformances listed in the audit report must be addressed in writing to both the Contracting Officer and Auditor within 14 calendar days of the audit. Plans must also have been audited since March 1, 2009. Also, qualified bidders must provide annual financial updates to Dun & Bradstreet as detailed in the Qualification Requirements. Although most other provisions of the program are similar to the program operated last year, offerors are urged to carefully read all applicable terms and conditions of the Master Solicitation for Commodity Procurement dated April 2009; Qualification Requirements for Prospective Contractors dated April 2009; Notice to the Trade dated April 2009; Commodity Specification for Frozen Consumer Pack Chickens dated August 2008; and Invitation No. 1. Inquiries may be made by telephoning (202) 720-7693 or addressing the Contracting Officer; USDA/AMS/Poultry Programs, Commodity Procurement Branch STOP 0260; 1400 Independence Ave., SW; Washington, DC 20250. An electronic version of this Food Purchase Report can be obtained through the world-wide-web via the Commodity Procurement Home Page at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/PYProcurement.