Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, together with the U.S. Department of Justice, announced a historic antitrust settlement intended to increase competition in the agricultural industry and lower the cost of chicken, turkey, and pork for consumers.
The case focused on claims that Agri-Stats Inc. shared sensitive information to competing meat processors which allowed for “reduced competition and enabled systematic price increases and coordinated decisions about how much meat to produce.”
Agri-Stats Inc. is a data-sharing and consulting company in the broiler chicken market, which has also historically operated in the pork and turkey markets. The company collects information regarding prices, outputs, and costs directly from meat processor accounting systems, standardizes that information, and returns it to the meat processors through both digital and written reports as well as in-person meetings.
This information has usually been withheld from meat-buyers like restaurants, food companies, and grocery stores.
“Americans deserve fairly priced groceries, and I am honored to have partnered with President Trump’s DOJ to lower the cost of chicken, pork, and turkey,” said Paxton. “Agri Stats facilitated the sharing of information that killed true competition in pricing and raised the price of food for consumers. The company will now be held accountable for its antitrust violation, and American consumers will now have lower-priced groceries.”
If the settlement is approved by the court, Agri-Stats will be required to cease practices such as providing sales reports and non-public information and adhere to restrictions on the timeliness of information shared.
Despite these requirements, Express Markets Inc., which is an Agri-Stats subsidiary, will still be allowed to provide price reports in similar ways as it has done in the past. This is due to Express Markets not being a focus on the case, as its reports are far less detailed and are provided to “all interested parties,” not exclusively meat processors.
In a press release, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller applauded both Paxton and the DOJ for their work in “delivering real accountability.”
“Secret coordination and backroom data-sharing schemes have no place in American agriculture,” said Miller. “When companies use insider information to pad profits while families struggle to afford chicken, pork, and turkey, that’s not a real competitive marketplace.”
The DOJ and Paxton’s announcement follows a press conference last week during which the DOJ and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins highlighted an ongoing investigation into beef meatpackers over antitrust practices.
