Latest news with #Brazil-headquartered
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
JBS to invest $135m in new US sausage plant, creating 500 jobs
Meat giant JBS is to invest $135m in a new sausage plant in Iowa through its US subsidiary, creating 500 jobs on completion. The company expects construction to start at the Perry site late this year and to complete in late 2026. Brazil-headquartered JBS said in a statement today (29 May) that the facility will produce some 130m lbs of sausage each year from processing around 500,000 sows. In the first phase, the plant will employ 250 workers in one shift and the company plans to double the staff count and introduce a second shift in the future. "This output can feed more than four million people nationwide annually, helping meet growing consumer demand for high-quality protein," JBS said. Wesley Batista Filho, the CEO of the US business unit, added: "This investment underscores our commitment to rural America and our confidence in the strength of the US market. We plan to be a long-term partner for Perry and, if approved by the community, the facility will help foster job creation and economic stability in the region." Aaron Juergens, president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, said in the same statement: "We're excited to see continued investment in Iowa's pork industry with the proposed opening of this new processing facility. 'It strengthens our state's leadership in pork production, creates new opportunities for pork producers, and supports the rural communities that are the backbone of Iowa agriculture." JBS USA is headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, and produces meat and poultry products. It is a majority shareholder of poultry producer Pilgrim's Pride. In February, JBS unveiled a $200m investment plan to boost beef production at facilities in the US states of Texas and Colorado. Rival meat processor Tyson Foods announced in March last year it would close its pork facility in Perry, affecting more than 1,200 employees. "JBS to invest $135m in new US sausage plant, creating 500 jobs" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
The Guardian
17-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Revealed: world's largest meat company may break Amazon deforestation pledges again
The world's largest meat company, JBS, looks set to break its Amazon rainforest protection promises again, according to frontline workers. Beef production is the primary driver of deforestation, as trees are cleared to raise cattle, and scientists warn this is pushing the Amazon close to a tipping point that would accelerate its shift from a carbon sink into a carbon emitter. JBS, the Brazil-headquartered multinational that dominates the Brazilian cattle market, promised to address this with a commitment to clean up its beef supply chain in the region by the end of 2025. In a project to understand the barriers to progress on Amazon deforestation, a team of journalists from the Guardian, Unearthed and Repórter Brasil interviewed more than 35 people, including ranchers and ranching union leaders who represent thousands of farms in the states of Pará and Rondônia. The investigation found widespread disbelief that JBS would be able to complete the groundwork and hit its deforestation targets. 'They certainly have the will to do it, just as we have the will to do it,' said one rancher. But the goal that all the cattle they bought would be deforestation-free was unreachable, he said. 'They say this is going to be implemented. I'd say straight away: that's impossible.' The problem of illegal cattle laundering would also not be resolved in time, said many, while another interviewee said land ownership issues meant quite simply that the deadline was 'impossible'. JBS told the Guardian that it contested the conclusions. 'Drawing inferences and conclusions from a limited sample of 30 farmers while disregarding that JBS has over 40,000 registered suppliers is entirely irresponsible,' the company said in a statement. It said that 'while the sector-wide challenges are significant and larger than any one company can solve on its own, we believe JBS has an in-depth and robust series of integrated policies, systems, and investments that are making a material and positive impact on reducing deforestation risks.' To hit its targets, JBS needs to register all its direct and indirect suppliers and ensure none of the meat it buys from the Amazon is from cattle that has grazed on deforested land. It has established a network of 'green offices' to provide free consultation to ranchers on how to comply with the three- to six-month process of regularisation, which involves drawing up a plan to plant more trees, withdrawing from contested territory, or making other environmental remediations. Then details will go into the JBS database, which continually monitors farms using artificial intelligence, and owners will be contacted if they fail to meet their obligations. In Pará, the company is also working with the state government on an ear-tagging scheme that would track the state's entire herd of 26 million cattle by 2026. The Pará state governor, Helder Barbalho, who has supported the traceability plan, expects JBS to meet its deadline, but he acknowledged there had been resistance and that small farmers in particular would need more support. He said the Bezos Earth Fund had committed 143m reais to this task: 'We are still mobilising resources so that we can finance this policy that is very important for us to present to livestock farmers.' But ranchers and rancher unions interviewed by the Guardian and its partners said that technical hurdles and uncertainties over land ownership – many ranches were created by invading public land – stood no chance of resolution by the company's self-imposed deadline. Adelosmar Antonio Orio, known as Ticão, who works for the Tucumaã-Ourilaãndia Union of Rural Producers, said the logistical challenges, such as ranchers needing special equipment including ear trackers and satellite internet systems, would make the scheme impossible to complete before the year-end deadline. 'Not even they [JBS] know how this traceability is going to be implemented,' he said. Others argued that new small- and medium-sized producers were being asked to bear most of the burden of the new system and that JBS and the government had not done enough to explain the new tracking system and provide the technological support needed to make it work. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion The thorny subject of land ownership would also be impossible to resolve, argued many, including Cristina Malcher, the president of the Commission of Women in Agribusiness, a national advocacy body for women in agriculture. 'The deadline of 2025 is impossible to meet, because if you don't know who owns the land, then you don't have environmental regularity,' Malcher told the Guardian. Ticão agreed. 'By the end of the year, we need to resolve all the land problems, all the environmental problems.' Could it be done in time? 'Definitely not,' he said. His union colleagues expressed similar disbelief that the deadline could be met. The investigation also spoke to indirect suppliers who openly admitted to using middlemen to clean up the environmental record of their livestock, a practice known as cattle laundering. Several producers predicted that a new tracing system would lead to new loopholes, such as slaughtering the cattle elsewhere and then selling the meat – rather than live cattle – at a low price to JBS. JBS has not mapped its entire supply chain, due under its deforestation commitments by the end of this year. But the company said: 'JBS has already enrolled the equivalent of over 80% of its annual cattle purchases on to a blockchain-enabled, web-based transparent farming livestock platform.' JBS has previously been linked to deforestation on a number of occasions, and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, filed a lawsuit last year accusing the company of misleading consumers with its climate goals in an effort to increase sales. A bipartisan group of 15 US senators urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to reject JBS's application for a share listing. 'Dozens of journalistic and NGO reports have shown that JBS is linked to more destruction of forests and other ecosystems than any other company in Brazil,' they wrote in an open letter. JBS told the Guardian: 'The challenges of addressing illegal deforestation on cattle operations that span millions of farms across hundreds of thousands of square kilometresare significant.' It detailed its response, which includes zero tolerance for deforestation sourcing policy, state-of-the-art supply chain monitoring, free technical assistance for producers to help regularise their farms, and the JBS Fund for the Amazon, which finances projects focused on the sustainable development of the Amazon biome. The company also said: 'JBS works with farmers, ranchers and partners across the food system to develop solutions that support a growing global population while optimising resources and reducing agriculture's environmental impact. Cattle raising in the Amazon is undergoing a sectoral transformation, and one company cannot solve all the industry's challenges.'
