JBS Has Limited Time to Reply to GIPSA Complaint
Packer accused of inaccurate accounting, which reduced payments to sellers.
Compiled by staff
Published: Oct 15, 2010
JBS USA, LLC has until next Wednesday to reply to a complaint brought by USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration that JBS purchased hogs on a carcass merit basis, provided inaccurate accounting to hog sellers, and substituted an arbitrary lean value for many of the hogs purchased. In the complaint, filed on Sept. 30, GIPSA said this action reduced payments to hog sellers who sold 16 lots of hogs within less than a year's time by an estimated $350,000.
If the allegation proves correct, and if each of the 16 lots of hogs was separately owned by 16 independent hog producers, then the loss alleged in the complaint represents an average loss per hog producer of nearly $22,000. R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard points out, for a family sized hog operation, this amount of loss could well mean the end of their ability to stay in business.
According to R-CALF USA Marketing Committee Chair Dennis Thornsberry, this GIPSA complaint provides a perfect and timely example of why the proposed GIPSA competition rule is vitally important to prevent packers like JBS from exacting financial harm on individual U.S. livestock producers or small groups of U.S. livestock producers.
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Tagged: livestock producers, usda, accounting
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