A cartel that reduced the price of livestock and gains market share. That is the accusation made by Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) towards to four giants of the meat industry: Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS’ American subsidiary and National Beef. Releasing this news to the public is Reuters, according to which the farmers’ association has allegedly redacted a 104-pages document that proves the existence of an agreement between the four large corporations of the industry, that began in 2015 and that aims at keeping the price of “fed” livestock (the units destined to be used for meat) at low levels. With this doing, according to R-CALF, the companies have been able to improve their margins and profitability. Reuters reports that this document has been presented to the Chicago Federal Court for further inquiry, along with a request for an unspecified sum from the damage. The response from the giant corporations were immediate: Tyson for example, stated that these were “baseless” accusations. “We want our suppliers to succeed”, stated the business to Reuters. According to R-CALF, the lawsuit aims at “stopping the 4 large corporations from taking over the US livestock market, which is today controlled by independent producers”, reports the news source.
