Department of Justice investigating foreign meatpackers

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into the foreign meatpacking industry, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday shortly after President Donald Trump called for a probe into what he called “fishy” beef price increases.

It has not yet been revealed which companies will be included in the investigation, but only a handful of large meatpackers control the industry in the United States as a result of consolidation.

Trump claimed that foreign companies were “driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation,” in a post on Friday on Truth Social. “We will always protect our American Ranchers, and they are being blamed for what is being done by Majority Foreign Owned Meat Packers, who artificially inflate prices, and jeopardize the security of our Nation’s food supply.”

In another post Friday, he wrote that “the price of Boxed Beef has gone up,” suggesting there may be “criminality” at play, even as he has insisted several times this week that food prices had come down during his presidency.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that ground chuck beef prices have sharply increased since January, when the price averaged $5.50 per pound. Ground chuck prices have risen to an average of $6.33 per pound as of September, the last month for which there is public data.

Four multinational corporations – National Beef, JBS, Cargill and Tyson – control more than 80% of the beef industry.

JBS and National Beef are both controlled by Brazilian conglomerates. JBS and National Beef did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Cargill is a privately held agribusiness giant based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and Tyson is a publicly traded company based in Springdale, Arkansas.

All four have been the subject of civil lawsuits filed by fast-food companies as well as ranchers alleging price-fixing. In 2020, the Justice Department during the first Trump administration had also been investigating the industry over antitrust concerns, according to a report at the time by Bloomberg News.

The parent company of JBS USA paid a $256 million fine in the U.S. in 2020 after facing allegations of bribing Brazilian officials.

Trump has acknowledged high beef costs, even though he has claimed that he has brought down food prices.

“Grocery prices are way down, and Walmart just announced that the cost of their standard Thanksgiving meal – this is the greatest, their greatest,” Trump said Wednesday while at the American Business Forum.

While Walmart’s Thanksgiving bundle is cheaper this year than last, it includes six fewer items.