NFU: Antitrust Investigation Needed Before JBS-Swift Proposed Acquisition
For Immediate Release: March 10, 2008
Contact: Liz Friedlander, 202-314-3191WASHINGTON (March 10, 2008) – National Farmers Union President Tom Buis, in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey Friday, said the JBS-Swift proposal to purchase the United States’ fourth and fifth largest beef processors and largest cattle feedlot operation is of deep concern to American family farmers and ranchers.
Buis urged Mukasey to conduct a thorough and comprehensive anti-trust investigation before allowing the acquisition to proceed.
“Independent livestock producers have witnessed the control of the beef processing market rapidly consolidate into the hands of a few companies,” Buis said. “Without free, fair and transparent markets, independent livestock producers cannot survive. Further consolidation of the beef processing market will not foster competition.”
JBS-Swift has proposed purchasing National Beef Packing, LLC, the nation’s fourth largest beef packer; Smithfield Beef, the fifth largest beef processor; and Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, LLC, the nation’s largest cattle feedlot operation. Allowing these acquisitions to take place will give JBS-Swift a daily slaughter capacity of more than 42,000 head within the United States, making the Brazil-based company the largest U.S. beef processor.
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