ISIS Hitting Home (As in Mississippi)

Rarely do I hear of international geo-politics directly affecting my small town or even state. Last night I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who works at one of the largest exporters in the state of Mississippi--a chicken producer named Sanderson Farms. There are two aspects of geo-politics that are hitting Sanderson Farms. First, the ban on food imports that was recently announced by Russia was much more drastic than most politically-inspired trade decisions. Unlike most bans and changes in trade relations, Russia decided not to grandfather in existing contracts so ships that were on the water, literally, were told that they didn't have a place to sell their chicken. In the long run, I wouldn't expect this to have much of an impact since prices in Russia will soar, which will lead to re-exports of our products from countries like Belarus, that are still importing our goods. It's going to cost Russia a lot more than it costs us. The conflict in Northern Iraq is a second area. Sanderson has large contracts with two partners in Turkey who then sells Sanderson products throughout Syria and Iraq. One of the biggest markets is Kurdistan. Since ISIS has taken control of large parts of Kurdistan, these partners have had trouble delivering product to Northern Iraq which has then meant that it ends up hitting Sanderson (and the economy of South Mississippi). According to a recent Businessweek article the market in poultry is strong enough to survive this, but this could just be corporate spin.