News meat market
US slaughterhouses: Government itself to blame for high prices
The major meat companies in the US, including JBS, Cargill and Tyson Foods, have lashed out at the US government in a joint letter. Not they, but the government is to blame for the high meat prices that citizens are presented with.
Recently accused the US government President Joe Biden said that they were making huge profits at the expense of American citizens and farmers. Due to the consolidation in recent years, the slaughterhouses could control pricing too much. To address this, Biden offered a grant to smaller parties of approximately $1,4 billion.
Labor shortage is the problem
This allegation has gone down the wrong way at the large slaughterhouses. Advocate The American Meat Institute bounced the ball back by saying that the shortage of labor is what makes meat prices so high. The consolidation has nothing to do with this, they say in a letter addressed to agriculture minister Tom Vilsack.
It's hard to say who's right. Slaughterhouses have indeed made high profits lately, while meat prices in the US have been under considerable pressure during the corona pandemic. At the same time, the labor shortage in the US is high, just as slaughterhouses in Europe are facing this.
Wouter Job
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