Letter to the Hon. Makan Delrahim, the Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Dept. of Justice - Sen. Lee Leads Letter Asking Justice Department to Immediately Investigate Meat Processing Plant Merger

Letter

Makan Delrahim
Assistant Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20530
RE: Proposed Acquisition of Mountain States Rosen by JBS USA Holdings, Inc.
Dear Mr. Delrahim,
On behalf of consumers and sheep ranchers across our five states, we write to bring your
attention to an acquisition that may irreversibly harm competition in the domestic lamb market.
On Friday this week, JBS USA Holdings, Inc. ("JBS"), the American subsidiary of Brazilian JBS
S.A., will close on its acquisition of a Mountain States Rosen ("MSR") lamb processing facility
in Greeley, CO.
JBS, one of the world's largest meat processing companies, is the largest importer of lamb in the
United States. MSR is a cooperative owned by more than 145 American families. Reports tell us
that its Greeley facility is the second largest lamb packaging plant in the United States,
processing approximately 350,000 lambs annually, over 6,000 per week, with an annual capacity
of nearly 800,000. MSR accounts for about one-fifth of the entire U.S. lamb market.
We understand that JBS is not the first potential buyer to express interest in the MSR facility. An
earlier interested buyer intended to continue operating MSR's Greeley facility and even expand
its capacity. However, it appears that after submitting a winning bid during bankruptcy
proceedings, JBS is preparing to completely shut down all lamb processing at the site. It is our
understanding that JBS intends to permanently destroy all of the lamb processing equipment as
soon as this week.
This is alarming for several reasons. In addition to eliminating hundreds of jobs, MSR's Greeley
facility is one of the largest lamb processing facilities in the region, and serves sheep ranchers
from 15 states, including Utah, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, and California. This facility
competes head-to-head with JBS, which imports all of its lamb products. Through this
acquisition, JBS will eliminate a major domestic competitor in the region and could replace
significant quantities of the American-raised lamb with imported products. Industry experts tell
us that the lamb processing market does not have the capacity to absorb the lambs currently
going to MSR. Approximately 15-20% of the US Supply may not find a processor when they
are ready for market. We are told that many of these family operated sheep ranches in the
Western states may go out of business after this deal, costing the lamb industry potentially
hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
We urge you to immediately open an investigation into this acquisition and take appropriate
steps to prevent irreversible actions that might harm the ability of American sheep ranchers to
get their products to market until the Department can determine how best to protect competition
in this significant part of America's food supply.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter, and please do not hesitate to reach out to any
of our offices with questions.
Regards,

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