In April, Mountain States Rosen, a lamb and mutton packer filed for bankruptcy. JBS USA a subsidiary of JBS SA of Brazil successfully bid and purchased the facility located in Greeley, CO. It is the intent of JBS USA to convert the plant to process beef, there by depriving lamb producers of a market. In response to critics of the transaction JBS USA offered to lease back the plant for 90 days to avoid an interruption in orderly processing and marketing of lamb. A plant dedicated to slaughter of sheep is under construction in Brush, CO.
Legislators from the House and Senate in addition to the Governors of lamb-producing states have addressed a letter to Assistant Attorney General, Makan Delrahim of the DOJ Antitrust Division, expressing concern over the transaction which the legislators maintain "may irreversibly harm competition in the domestic lamb market".
It is noted that JBS USA imports lamb into the U.S., presumably from a subsidiary in Australia for distribution.
The largest producer of lamb in the U.S. is the Mountain States Lamb Cooperative with members in fifteen states. The Governor of Wyoming Mark Gordon has expressed his concern to Secretary of Agriculture, Dr. Sonny Perdue, indicating that conversion of the MSR plant which is responsible for over five percent of U.S. lamb packing will reduce competition and deprive producers of a market.
The lamb issue is only a side-show to a far larger concern relating to consolidation in meat packing and the influence of foreign ownership on U.S. production and distribution.