JBS USA Pork has entered into an agreement to buy Cargill’s U.S. pork business for $1.45 billion. Included in the acquisition is Cargill’s processing plants in Ottumwa, Iowa and Beardstown, Illinois. Those plants processed 9.3 million hogs in 2014. JBS also gets Cargill’s five feed mills in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa and Texas and four hog farms in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Cargill had 161,000 sows at the end of 2014.
Cargill News
JBS first entered the U.S. pork business with the purchase of Swift & Company in 2007. The wholly-owned subsidiary of JBS SA is the leading processor of pork, beef and lamb in the United States. The company has the capacity to process more than 50,000 hogs at facilities in Marshalltown, Iowa, Worthington, Minnesota and Louisville, Kentucky. JBS USA is also a majority shareholder in Pilgrim’s Pride, the second-largest poultry company in the country.
Cargill senior vice president Todd Hall says JBS “places a great deal of value on growing this part of their company to better compete in the marketplace and are willing to invest in its future.”
Completion of the deal is subject to regulatory review and approval.