Group asks state attorneys general to block JBS-Pilgrim’s Pride merger

BILLINGS, Mont. – A Montana-based group representing independent cattle producers has asked attorneys general in Colorado and 16 other states to help block a proposed JBS acquisition of bankrupt Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., one of the nation’s biggest poultry producers.

R-CALF USA said it believes the merger of Brazil-based JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, and Pilgrim’s Pride would violate U.S. antitrust laws because it would reduce competition between beef and poultry and “enable JBS to greatly increase its exercise of market power to the detriment of both U.S. cattle producers and U.S. meat consumers.”

“The foundation of our concern is that beef and poultry are competing substitute protein products in the consumer market and that the merger would allow JBS to arbitrarily increase and decrease poultry production and/or raise and lower poultry prices within its fully integrated poultry division to manipulate both the demand for beef and the price for live cattle,´ said Max Thornberry, R-CALF USA president and Region 4 director.

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R-CALF said it would be contacting the remaining 33 state attorneys general this week to request they join in blocking the merger.

JBS announced on Sept. 16 that it had entered into a stock purchase agreement to buy 64 percent of Pilgrim Pride’s stock for $2.8 billion. The transaction was expected to be completed by December, JBS said in a press release to its investors.

Last year, R-CALF joined in an effort that resulted in the U.S. Department of Justice blocking a proposed JBS acquisition of Kansas City-based National Beef Packing Co.