In late May, Walmart filed an antitrust lawsuit against over a dozen poultry producers, including Pilgrim’s Pride, a subsidiary of the Brazilian-owned meatpacking conglomerate, JBS USA. The company is currently receiving over $64 million as part of the agriculture bailout while its parent company, J&F Investimentos, is reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission.
The lawsuit alleges that Pilgrim’s Pride, headquartered in Greeley, Colo., participated in a conspiracy to manipulate the prices of chicken meat by “coordinating their output and reducing the supply of broiler chickens into the market” creating a “supra-competitive” environment. According to court documents, chicken suppliers destroyed breeder hens to reduce supply, resulting in a 50% price hike in wholesale chicken between 2008 to 2016.
JBS USA purchased a majority stake in Pilgrim’s Pride in September 2009.
In April, Kraft, Conagra, and Nestle filed a lawsuit against a number of poultry producers, including Pilgrim’s Pride, for price-fixing as well. In February, Pilgrim’s Pride was sued by two watchdog groups for false marketing practices, alleging they advertised foods as “natural,” “organic,” or “humane” while raising chickens in crowded, unsanitary warehouses where they were abused by their employees.
The New York Daily News reported in May that JBS USA not only has been bringing in millions of taxpayer dollars, but also has been fined for underpaying farmers for livestock since early 2017 in addition to announcing at least five recalls for tainted meat with contaminants such as E. coli or salmonella bacteria.
Last week, nine Democratic senators co-signed a letter urging Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to keep commodity purchases for American farmers only and “not the business interests of foreign corporations.” The letter also stated that it is “unacceptable that American taxpayers have been subsidizing our competitors through trade assistance.”
The lawsuit adds just another legal episode for the troubled billionaire Batista brothers. In 2017, Joesley and Wesley Batista admitted to police to bribing hundreds of officials in the Brazilian government. In May, Wesley Batista was indicted by a Brazilian federal court for insider trading. The brothers are also linked to Diosdado Cabello, the president of the Nicolás Maduro-backed Venezuelan National Assembly, who was reportedly behind an assassination plot against Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
