010636 Farm Groups Worry IBP and Tyson MergerJune 15, 2001Sioux Falls, SD - Representatives of some farm groups in South Dakota and elsewhere said they were worried about the merger of meatpacker IBP and Tyson Foods, which a judge ordered to proceed. Continued mergers of conglomerates like IBP and Tyson hurt rural America, said Dennis Wiese, president of the South Dakota Farmers Union in Huron. It's a case of the big getting bigger, he said. “One is the conglomerate for poultry and the other is the conglomerate for beef and some pork. Together, they'll be the conglomerate for poultry, beef and pork,” Wiese said. Tyson is the world's top poultry producer, and IBP is the largest hog processor. The combination would create a company with 30% of the beef market, 33% of the chicken market and 18% of the pork market. Once the U.S. Justice Department decides too few companies own too much, maybe justice will be done, Wiese said. He said Congress should send a strong antitrust signal to the administration. “The family farm and ranch is at stake,” he said. A Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled that Tyson cannot back out of its $4.7 billion acquisition of IBP. The judge said Tyson “improperly terminated” its agreement with IBP, which has headquarters in Dakota Dunes. Richard Kjerstad, a rancher from Wall and president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau, said his group also has concerns about the merger. Enacting new laws might not be the answer, he said. “It's better to have competition control (the markets), but ... consolidation, especially in the livestock packing industry, has almost gone to an extreme,” he said.
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