Meat Packing Plants Running Near Capacity

Beef, Poultry and pork processing plants are running at nearly the rate they were before the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In a statement Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said livestock processing plants around the nation as a whole are seeing output at more than 95% of their production levels a year ago.

Beef processing plants are at 98% year over year, poultry 98% and pork plants at 95%. Perdue gave credit to the “patriotic heroic plants employees” across the US.

Perdue;” From the producers and the ranchers to the processors and packers. To our overall logistical system that helped deliver that to the tables of families in the United States”

Meanwhile, the nation's largest meat packers are facing another antitrust lawsuit. The trustee for a bankrupt Chicago grocery co-op is seeking class-action status in a suit claiming Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill, and National Beef conspired to manipulate beef prices paid by wholesalers.

Court documents show the plaintiff accuses the packers of using their control over the American beef market to limit cattle supplies. They say consumers paid unnecessarily high prices for beef this spring. The suit also claims the packers’ price-fixing efforts have been ongoing since 2015.

Last year, Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund or R-CALF USA led a suit alleging similar antitrust violations. That group is seeking damages for ranchers.

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the claims.