RESTON, Va. – The Meat Importers Council of America will move its headquarters to the North American Meat Processors Association office in Reston, Va., starting on Dec. 1.

NAMP Executive Director Phil Kimball and MICA Executive Director Laurie Bryant have worked together for years on issues facing both memberships, including their opposition to Country-of-Origin-Labeling and preventing E. coli. The move will make it easier to continue to do so, and it opens the possibility of additional collaboration, the groups leaders say.

Both organizations have overlapping memberships, with many NAMP members also belonging to MICA. MICA has several hundred members, in North America as well as Australia, New Zealand, South America and Europe. It works to promote and facilitate trade of imported meat and meat products within North America.

Kimball and Sabrina Moore, NAMP Director of Meetings, Marketing & Accounting, were guests of MICA at its Annual Meeting last week in San Francisco, and NAMP will host Bryant at its Outlook Conference later this month.