Meatpacker CEOs Deny Market Manipulation Behind Beef Price Surge
- Executives say 16% beef price rise is from ‘market forces’
- Ranchers say packers abuse power to squeeze farmers, consumers
This article is for subscribers only.
The chief executives of four big meatpacking companies denied conspiring to manipulate beef supplies or prices as they defended themselves in congressional testimony Wednesday against charges of profiteering.
Long-simmering grievances over the meat companies’ dominant market position have boiled over into the broader political debate as rising inflation has become the American public’s top concern and prices at the meat counter a flashpoint. Beef prices were up 16% in March from a year earlier, outpacing the broader 8.5% inflation rate during the period, itself the highest in four decades.