Brazilian firm buying up U.S. beef processors, would rank No. 1; anti-trust concerns are raised

"Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS SA is eating the U.S. beef industry alive," reports the Daily Yonder. "Last year, JBS bought Colorado-based Swift & Co. Earlier this week, JBS announced that it would buy National Beef in Kansas City . . . then the acquisitive giant said it was in advanced talks to buy Smithfield Food Inc.'s beef business."

The deal "will certainly raise questions with the Department of Justice," which enforces anti-trust laws, Jim Robb, an economist with the Livestock Marketing Information Center, told the Reuters news service. If the deal clears anti-trust review, "JBS would control 32 percent of the U.S. beef market and ten percent of the world market," the Yonder reports.

Members of Congress are "concerned about anti-trust issues raised by JBS's acquisition plans," reports Lisa Keefe of MeatingPlace, which covers the red-meat industry. "Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Ia.), chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry, sent a letter to Thomas O. Barnett, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for anti-trust, urging him to review the proposed combinations closely," Keefe reports.

"He noted that a merger of JBS's U.S. operations with Smithfield's beef packing operations, National Beef and the Five Rivers Ranch system of feedlots," would make the company the nation's largest beef processor -- a title now held by Tyson Foods, 25 percent at last count. "That may have slipped last month when it ended cattle slaughter at its 4,000-head-a-day plant in Emporia, Kan.," Reuters notes. (Read more)

Earlier, Iowa Sens. Charles Grassley (R) and Tom Harkin (D) voiced similar concerns. "Still, most economists and industry observers expect the deals to be approved as planned," Keefe reports. (Read more; subscription may be required)