White House accuses Big Meat of raising prices, claims “profiteer”

The Biden administration has beef with Big Meat.

The White House this week criticized the four biggest companies in the meat industry, accusing them of “raising prices while generating record profits during the pandemic” and blaming them for soaring price inflation in grocery stores across the country.

Rising prices for beef, pork and poultry are behind the global spike in food prices seen since late 2020, said Brian Deese, director of the White House’s National Economic Council.

However, as consumer prices rose, farmers and ranchers also did not see the amount paid by giant meat companies rise, Deese said.

“This raises concern about profits linked to the pandemic, companies driving price increases in a way that hurts consumers who go to the grocery store,” Deese said at a press conference Wednesday.

The Biden administration has gone so far as to label the four biggest meat companies as “middlemen” who use their “power to squeeze both consumers, farmers and ranchers,” Deese and two other associates wrote. the White House in a blog post.

These four companies are Minnesota-based commodities trader Cargill, Arkansas-based chicken producer Tyson Foods, Brazil-based meat conditioner JBS, and Missouri-based National Beef Packing Co., which is owned by Brazilian beef producer Marfrig. Global Foods.

Together, these companies slaughtered about 85 percent of grain-fed cattle in the United States that are processed into steaks, roast beef and other cuts of meat in 2018, according to the most recent data available from the US Department of the United States. Agriculture.

Tyson Foods, which sells beef, pork and chicken, hit back at the White House, calling its claims “inaccurate.”

In a statement, Tyson said the meat industry has suffered from multiple market shocks due to “a global pandemic and extreme weather conditions” that have imbalanced supply and demand across the country. industry and drive up prices.

There has been a “drastic drop in the ability of meat processors to operate at full capacity,” Tyson said in a statement. “This led to an oversupply of live cattle and an insufficient supply of beef, while the demand for beef products was at an all time high. “

The company also blamed the nationwide labor shortage for hampering its ability to increase the supply of meat to grocery stores. When it comes to chicken, Tyson has previously blamed the underachieving roosters for holding back the supply of new chicks this year.

Cargill, JBS and National Beef did not return The Post’s requests for comment.

“Publishing inflammatory statements that ignore the fundamentals of how supply and demand affect markets does nothing,” said Mark Dopp, COO of the North American Meat Institute, an industry group that represents meat packers. .

In July, beef and veal prices rose 6.5% from the previous year, while poultry prices rose 5.3% and pork prices rose 7.8%, according to the latest consumer price index data.

Chicken prices have increased the most in the past year for any 12-month period through 2004, according to federal data.

The USDA and the Justice Department are already investigating pricing in the chicken processing industry, the White House said.

The administration added that USDA will invest $ 1.4 billion in pandemic assistance to support small-scale producers, processors, distributors, farmers’ markets, seafood processors, and food and farm workers. affected by COVID-19.

The Big Meat hammering comes months after President Joe Biden made cracking down on corporate anti-competitive behavior and industry consolidation a key part of his platform.

A meeting of the new White House Competition Council created by Biden is scheduled for Friday.

With post wires