Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday confirmed that the Justice Department is investigating major beef processors for potential antitrust violations and separately teased that the agency has neared a settlement in its case against Agri Stats.
In a press conference, Blanche said DOJ “has been actively investigating” the potential anticompetitive conduct in the U.S. beef industry “with a review of over 3 million documents,” and "hundreds of industry participants, including ranchers, cattlemen, producers and processors.” When asked by a reporter about how close DOJ was to a lawsuit, Blanche said he was not in a position to say.
“If I had an answer, I would share it with you,” Blanche said. “But, just to understand, there’s a lot of work that’s been done and there’s a lot of work to do and we are moving as quickly as we can.”
President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in November that he had asked the DOJ to open an investigation into the four largest meatpackers, often known as the "Big Four." Later that day, former Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the investigation was underway in an X post.
According to the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, four firms handle 85% of all steer and heifer purchases. Blanche said “multiple plant closures across the country, the current market structure, and high concentration in the industry indicate anticompetitive activity."
Blanche also emphasized that two of these firms are wholly or primarily foreign-owned. JBS USA is a subsidiary of the Brazilian company JBS S.A. while Marfrig, another Brazilian firm, holds majority shares in National Beef.
It’s easy to be “in the know” about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Sign up for a FREE month of Agri-Pulse news! Simply click here
This is not the first investigation DOJ has launched into major beef processors in recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the agency began investigating Cargill, JBS, National Beef and Tyson Foods for potential price fixing, according to a confidentiality agreement signed by agency officials that was obtained by Agri-Pulse. However, a Bloomberg report suggests this probe was closed last year.
“We open and close investigations regularly,” Blanche said when asked by a reporter about the difference between this investigation and the previous one. “I think that circumstances change, whether it’s circumstances within the Department of Justice and priorities that we have, but also within the industry."
In addition to confirming DOJ’s beef industry investigation, Blanche also said later this week the agency “will be announcing a historic settlement that will directly affect the prices of proteins like chicken, pork and turkey.” In 2023, the DOJ filed a lawsuit alleging data firm Agri Stats violated antitrust law by aggregating and sharing data from chicken, pork and turkey firms.
Peter Navarro, who serves as senior counselor to the president for trade and manufacturing, said during the press conference that the settlement "is going to unleash a set of forces that are going to ripple through this industry rapidly and in a way which is going to allow us to get the bottom of this.”
For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.
