Largest Meat Producer, JBS, Sells Beef Operations in 3 Countries

June 21, 2017 update: A Brazilian federal judge has blocked this $300-million sale of JBS beef operations to Minerva, as a corruption investigation continues and as the office of the attorney general asks that the assets of JBS and its majority shareholders be frozen. Read more from Reuters.

JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, has been making headlines as its parent company J&F is now set to pay $3.2 billion for bribery in Brazil.

In March, COK volunteer Simone de Lima of Brazil blogged about the country’s major investigation into corruption in the meat industry that led to the charges.

JBS owns multiple other meat companies, including Pilgrim’s Corp. Did you know that in 2014 a COK investigation revealed birds buried alive at a Pilgrim’s factory farm in North Carolina? Or that Colorado State University students are fighting to oppose a campus slaughterhouse funded by JBS?

But this meat industry giant has just sold its beef operations in three countries — Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, for $300 million to Minerva S.A. — another of the top beef producers and one of Brazil’s largest exporters.

JBS has stated that the company  “intends to use the proceeds from the sale to reduce its financial leverage”. According to Reuters: “Minerva explained that of the five plants acquired from JBS in Argentina, four are closed and will remain so until market conditions improve there”.

As COK volunteer Simone wrote, in Brazil the meat industry investigation “has sparked widespread discussions about the impacts of animal agriculture on human health, the environment, workers’ rights, and on the lives of the animals themselves.” 

Awareness of the link between animal agribusiness and these topics is growing here in the US, too, as well as around the world — from animal welfare, to the environment, to worker safety, to health. You can take a stand on all of these important issues: Visit TryVeg.com today!