The Yolk’s on Pilgrim’s Pride

Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation is shelling out some serious coin in a settlement claiming it underpaid contract growers.

Context: Pilgrim’s Pride is a subsidiary of JBS. The plaintiffs, aka farmworkers, accused the corporation of an “overarching conspiracy to suppress compensation paid to broiler farmers nationwide.” 

The $100M settlement will be awarded to 24,354 growers. Plaintiffs say the collusion between Pilgrim’s and four other poultry processors began January 27, 2013 and ran through December 31, 2019.

This is one of the largest antitrust settlements in the food industry.

The courts aren’t clucking around. Tyson Foods ($21M), Sanderson Farms ($17.75M), Koch Foods ($15.5M), and Perdue Farms ($14.75M) all reached settlements before Pilgrim’s Pride in the same case.

Soundbite: “Growers were deprived of vigorous competition for their broiler grow-out services, causing the pay of all growers for each pound of broiler chicken produced to be artificially suppressed.” — statement from the court

The yolk’s on you, Pilgrim’s Pride. Three years prior, Pilgrim’s Pride pleaded guilty to price fixing under federal charges and paid $107.9M. At the time, Pilgrim’s, Tyson, and other competitors were allegedly colluding to slow down production of broiler chickens. This spiked prices and hurt major customers like Chick-fil-A and KFC.