‘Throw Me a Bone Here’: Small Meat Processors Say USDA Measures Don’t Address Industry’s Root Problems

Burdened with relatively higher operating costs than the largest meat processors, small meatpacking plants are struggling to survive — even with $1 billion in federal grants available to them.

Over the past two decades, Greg Gunthorp carved out a niche operating a small meat processing plant in northern Indiana. He sold several kinds of meat to chic Chicago and Indianapolis restaurants and to Chicago O’Hare International Airport, he said. He also sold direct to consumers.

But selling in grocery stores was not an option, as the largest meatpackers often have those contracts. In his circumstances, he found it difficult to compete in the chicken industry, and he recently stopped raising and slaughtering the bird.

“In an extremely concentrated marketplace,” he said, “it’s difficult for a small processor — especially a plant that slaughters — to find a sweet spot somewhere to fit long term.”

In an industry in which four companies — Tyson Foods, JBS, Smithfield and Marfrig — control most of the meat market, small slaughterhouses are struggling to compete.