Meat + Poultry - August 2007 - 36

JBS CEO Joesley Batista in late May
hinted at a likely sale by saying that JBS
doesn't work with pork and its business
isn't pork. Observers though say JBS
might need Swift Pork's strong cash flow
and earnings to support it financially
while it improves Swift Beef's earnings.
Swift Pork has a world-class pork system in place and is the best fresh pork
marketer in the U.S., say observers.
There will be plenty of competition for
Swift Pork should JBS put it up for sale.
It could be worth $500 million or more,
based on EBITDA. Cargill will likely remain keen to buy Swift Pork. Seaboard
Foods and possibly others might be interested as well. So JBS's acquisition of
Swift might not be its final chapter

Japanese influence
Other foreign investment in the U.S.
meat industry has been nearly all by
Japanese companies. One of the ear-

liest investors was Itoham Foods Inc.,
which bought Cariani Sausage Co. in
Hayward, Calif., in 1974. Itoham America now includes: Ito Cariani Foods in
Hayward; Calco International in Denver (export/imports); NWIP, Sioux City,
Iowa (supplies raw material to Calco
and Ito Cariani); Wyoming Premium
Foods, Wheatland, Wyo. (a hog production unit with 5,000 sows).
Itoham also owns, in partnership
with Mitsubishi Corp., Indiana Packers
Corp. in Delphi, Ind. Indiana Packers,
which began operations in 1991, is the
industry's eighth-largest pork processor
with a daily capacity of 14,000 hogs.
Japan's largest meat company, Nippon Meat Packers, has also had a long
presence in the U.S. industry through
its Day-Lee Foods subsidiary in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Day-Lee exports
fresh and frozen meats to Asia. It also
owns Texas Farms, a 33,500-sow hog

production unit in Perryton, Texas,
making it the industry's 18th largest
hog producer.
Day-Lee is also the second major partner in Nebraska Beef Ltd., Omaha, Neb.,
the industry's eighth-largest beef processor. Day-Lee,
general partner William
Hughes and
other investors founded Nebraska
Beef in 1995. Another Santa Fe Springs
company, Tengu Company, is a subsidiary of Nichirei Foods, which is part of
Japan's Nichirei Corp.
Steve Kay is editor and publisher of Petaluma, Calif.-based Cattle Buyers Weekly (www.cattlebuyersweekly.com)
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