In 1991, NPFDA began awarding the NPFDA Poultry Industry Lifetime Achievement Award each year to a poultry industry leader that has played a major role in the growth of the poultry industry. This year NPFDA has awarded Mr James Sumner, President of the US Poultry and Egg Export Council, with the award.

Mr Sumner will be presented with the award 25 January, 2012 at 6PM at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

Jim Sumner has served as President of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) since February 1990. USAPEEC is a non-profit membership organization, which represents approximately 220 of the leading poultry processing companies, trading companies, and affiliated organizations involved in exporting.

The Council, as a cooperator with the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture, is responsible for the worldwide promotion of US poultry and egg products and maintains offices in 13 foreign countries. The Council also represents the industry in various trade policy and other export-related issues. USAPEEC is the bridge between food-product importers worldwide and exporters of US poultry and egg products.

The Council's 200+ member companies account for more than 95 per cent of all the poultry and eggs exported from the US USAPEEC exists for the purpose of increasing US poultry and egg exports by protecting, opening and developing markets throughout the world and by serving as the industry’s voice on trade policy issues. USAPEEC facilitates the process between buyers and sellers, in order to accomplish its stated mission of helping to increase exports of US poultry and egg products in the international marketplace.

Mr Sumner has been appointed by the past five Secretaries of Agriculture and US Trade Representatives to serve on the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee, under US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and US Agriculture Secretary Vilsack. These committees provide industry input for various international trade issues and WTO negotiations.

Under the Clinton Administration he served on the Market Access Group of the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission to deal with US-Russian trade issues. He also serves as the Export Advisor to the American Egg Board and as President of the UIPDP (the USAPEEC International Poultry Development Program), which for 10 years operated a joint venture broiler production project known as Elinar Broiler in Russia, which was developed by the US broiler industry and the US Department of Agriculture.

In 2005, Sumner was elected president of the International Poultry Council, an organisation he helped form which represents the poultry industries of over 28 countries representing over 90 per cent of the world’s poultry meat production. He has continued to serve in that capacity since IPC’s inception.

Sumner also serves on the Executive Committee of the US Agricultural Export Development Council, an industry-supported organization that represents approximately 80 US agricultural commodity trade associations, farmer cooperatives and state regional trade groups from throughout the US

Prior to joining the USAPEEC staff, Jim served as Director of Corporate Communications for Dairymen, Inc., a regional milk marketing cooperative based in Louisville, KY, and as Director of Marketing for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. In the 1970’s he served as the Farm Editor of the Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal newspaper.

A journalism graduate of Southern Illinois University, Jim has done postgraduate studies at Temple University in public relations. A native of southern Illinois, Jim and his wife Ann have two sons, a daughter and two granddaughters and reside in Covington, GA, near Atlanta.