Source: Susan Kelly, MEATINGPLACE, 5/18/18


A group of food distributors and grocery retailers has filed a new antitrust lawsuit accusing 17 of the nation’s largest poultry processors and data provider Agri Stats of conspiring to collectively reduce breeder flocks and artificially increase chicken prices between 2008 and 2016.

The complaint, filed this week in U.S. District Court in northern Illinois, follows a string of similar lawsuits filed since 2016 that accuse industry participants of illegally manipulating poultry supplies to maintain high prices.
Plaintiffs in the latest suit are: Action Meat Distributors Inc., Associated Food Stores Inc., Bashas’ Inc., Certco Inc., DiCarlo

Distributors Inc., Ira Higdon Grocery Co., Nicholas & Co., Pacific Agri-Products Inc., Pacific Food Distributors Inc., Troyer Foods Inc., URM Stores Inc., and Weinstein Wholesale Meats Inc. They seek a jury trial and damages representing triple the amount of alleged overcharges, to be determined at trial.

The defendants are: Claxton Poultry Farms, Fieldale Farms Corp., Foster Farms, George’s, Harrison Poultry Inc., House of Raeford Farms Inc., Koch Foods, Mar-Jac Poultry Inc., Mountaire Farms, O.K. Foods, Peco Foods Inc., Perdue Farms, Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., Sanderson Farms, Simmons Foods, Tyson Foods, Wayne Farms and Agri Stats.

In January 2017, defendants in one of the earlier cases filed a flurry of motions to dismiss that litigation, citing lack of evidence that any price-fixing took place. But a federal judge in late 2017 declined to dismiss the class-action litigation.

Tyson Foods has said the antitrust claims are unfounded. Pilgrim’s Pride has called the allegations completely without merit. Sanderson Farms also has said it will vigorously defend itself against the lawsuits.

This January, food distributors Sysco Corp. and US Foods Inc. filed separate antitrust suitsin U.S. District Court in northern Illinois accusing multiple chicken processors and Agri Stats of conspiring to curtail the supply of chicken and artificially inflate prices. Grocery retailer Winn-Dixie also is suing the chicken companies in the federal court in Chicago.

And in February, a group of poultry growers sued Sanderson Farms and Koch Foods in U.S. District Court in North Carolina for allegedly agreeing not to compete with one another for growers’ services.

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