Pilgrim's Pride Corporation is an American, multi-national food company, currently one of the largest chicken producers in the United States and Puerto Rico and the second-largest chicken producer in Mexico. It exited bankruptcy in December 2009 and relocated its U.S. headquarters to Greeley, Colorado, in 2011. It is majority-owned by JBS S.A. Pilgrim's Pride purchased Gold'n Plump for $350 million in late November 2016.
Cargill, Incorporated is an American multinational food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865 by William Wallace Cargill, it is the largest privately held company in the United States in terms of revenue.
The South Region of Brazil is one of the five regions of Brazil. It includes the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina, and covers 576,409.6 square kilometres (222,553.0 sq mi), being the smallest region of the country, occupying only about 6.76% of the territory of Brazil. Its whole area is smaller than that of the state of Minas Gerais, in Southeast Brazil, for example or the whole metropolitan France.
JBS USA Holdings, Inc. is a meat processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian multinational JBS S.A. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company.
ContiGroup Companies, Inc (CGC) was founded by Simon Fribourg in Arlon, Belgium, in 1813 as a grain-trading firm. Formerly known as Continental Grain, ContiGroup has expanded into a multinational corporation with offices and facilities in 10 countries while employing more than 13,500 people worldwide. Today, CGC is one of the largest privately held corporations in the United States.
Faccenda Foods Limited is a privately owned UK business established in 1962 by Robin Faccenda, which supplies fresh poultry products.
JBS S.A. is a Brazilian company that is the largest meat processing enterprise in the world, producing factory processed beef, chicken, salmon, pork, and also selling by-products from the processing of these meats. It is headquartered in São Paulo. It was founded in 1953 in Anápolis, Goiás.
BRF S.A. is a Brazilian food processing company with over 30 brands in its portfolio. They include Sadia, Perdigão, Qualy, Paty, Dánica and Bocatti. Its products are sold in over 150 countries and on five continents. More than 100 thousand employees work at the company, which owns more than 50 factories in eight countries: Argentina, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Thailand, and Turkey.
Marfrig S.A. is the second largest Brazilian food processing company, after JBS. The company is headquartered in São Paulo. The company has 33 production units around the world and operational bases in 22 countries, exporting their products to over 100. It's activities include the production, processing, industrialization, sale and distribution of food based on animal protein, in addition to the sale of other food byproducts, such as frozen vegetables, sauces and desserts. The company is one of the largest beef producers in the world.
Doux Group, founded in 1955 and headquartered in Châteaulin, Finistère (France), is a French food processing company in the industrial poultry production business, exporting poultry-based processed products. In 2014, it was ranked as the largest producer of poultry in Europe, and the third largest in the world. The group is led by Arnaud Marion, who has been the CEO of Doux since late 2012.
National Beef is a beef processor headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, that produces fresh, chilled and further processed beef and beef by-products for customers worldwide. The company is owned by the Brazilian multinational Marfrig. Its main focuses include branded box beef, consumer ready beef, portion control beef and wet blue leather. The company is considered one of the modern "big four" beef packers in the United States.
Fábrica de Produtos Alimentícios Vigor S.A., simply known as Vigor, is a Brazilian dairy and food company headquartered in São Paulo. It is the sixth largest dairy company in Brazil. The company is a subsidiary of Mexican dairy firm Grupo Lala.
Marel is a multi-national food processing company based in Iceland and headquartered in Garðabær. The company manufactures equipment and other services for food processing in the poultry, meat, and fish industries. It employs approximately 8,000 people in offices and subsidiaries in over 30 countries.
OSI Group is an American privately owned holding company of meat processors that service the retail and food service industries with international headquarters in Aurora, Illinois. It operates over 65 facilities in 17 countries. Sheldon Lavin was the owner, CEO and chairman until his death in May 2023.
Finnwatch is a Finnish civic organisation focused on global corporate responsibility. It seeks to promote ecologically, socially or economically responsible business by engaging companies, economic regulation and public discussion. Behind Finnwatch there are Finnish development and environment organisations and trade unions. The member organisations of Finnwatch are Service Centre for Development Cooperation), Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland, Friends of the Earth Finland, Finn Church Aid, Attac Finland, Pro Ethical Trade and Kehys.
Moy Park is a Northern Ireland based poultry meat producer, the largest meat producer in Northern Ireland, with operations in the Republic of Ireland, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands.
The Operation Carne Fraca is an operation started on March 17, 2017, and enforced by the Federal Police of Brazil, that country's federal police force, which investigated some of the country's largest meat processing companies. The name is a pun between the operation's concern with meat and the Bible verse about "weak flesh" – as a result, it is sometimes translated "Operation Weak Flesh".
The meat industry has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Outbreaks of the virus took place in factories operated by the meat packing industry and the poultry processing industry. These outbreaks affected dozens of plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posed a significant threat to the meat supply in the United States. The damage the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the meatpacking industry was unexpected and resulted in a sharp reduction of meat processing and capacity reduction of meatpacking companies.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, outbreaks of the virus took place in factories operated by the meat packing industry and the poultry processing industry. These outbreaks affected multiple plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posing a threat to the food supply in Canada.
On May 30, 2021, JBS S.A., a Brazil-based meat processing company, suffered a cyberattack, disabling its beef and pork slaughterhouses. The attack impacted facilities in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
US$ 5.5 billion (2018) 