JBS, already the largest meat packer in the Americas, has
just gotten bigger.
JBS USA is buying Cargill’s pork business for $1.45 billion,
they both said in a news release on Canada Day.
The deal includes two Midwest meat processing plants, one
in Ottumwa, Iowa, and the other at Beardstown, Ill.
Both plants were acquired by Cargill in
1987, and in 2014 they processed a total of 9.3 million hogs.
Canada's total hog population is about 12 million.
JBS also gets five feed mills, two of
them in Missouri, and one each in Arkansas, Iowa and Texas, and four hog farms ,
two of them in Arkansas and one each in Oklahoma and Texas.
“This transaction will strengthen our
position as a producer and supplier of all major animal proteins around the
world, and provide increased opportunities for our producer partners and key
customers,” said JBS chief operating officer Martin Dooley.
JBS first entered the U.S. pork market
with the acquisition of Swift & Company in 2007 and has steadily improved
performance ever since. The company has more than 6,000 team members and the
total daily capacity to process more than 50,000 hogs at processing facilities
in Marshalltown, Iowa; Worthington, Minn.; and Louisville, Ky.
It is the biggest beef packer in the
U.S. and bought the XL Foods Inc. plant in Alberta after it was in trouble
after it was involved in the biggest beef recall in Canadian history.
JBS is a Brazilian company.
