Carina Ventures LLC a subsidiary of Burford Capital is pursuing litigation against turkey producers alleging a conspiracy to raise prices and engage in non-competitive activities. A July 21st complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas alleges that producers “fixed, raised, stabilized or maintained the prices of turkey sold in the United States beginning around 2008 and continuing at least until 2016”. Carina Ventures represents Sysco a major food distributor. Defendants include ten major turkey producers collectively responsible for 75 percent of production and AgriStats Inc.
The lawsuit implicates AgriStats and its subsidiary Express Markets Inc. as providing data that enabled turkey producers to manipulate prices. Carina Ventures maintains that the data was only available through a subscription to AgriStats Inc.
The complaint also commented on practices in the turkey industry citing opportunities for producers to collude over factor such as vertical integration, barriers to entry for aspirant producers and the homogeneity of turkey products.
The lawsuit against the turkey integrators parallels similar allegations leveled against broiler producers including AgriStats Inc.as a co-defendant. In early July, the major broiler integrators AgriStats and Rabobank were dismissed from similar claims alleging collusion to set prices.