The biggest meat producers in the United States are Tyson Foods and JBS USA, followed by Cargill, National Beef Packing, Smithfield Foods, Hormel, and Pilgrim’s Pride. Tyson leads on revenue with $54.4 billion in fiscal 2025. JBS USA is a close second once its beef, pork, and Pilgrim’s Pride chicken operations are added together. Between these companies, a very small group controls most of the beef, pork, and chicken Americans eat.
Tyson Foods
Tyson Foods posted $54.4 billion in net sales for the fiscal year ending September 2025, the highest revenue of any U.S.-headquartered meat company. Beef brought in $21.6 billion, chicken $16.8 billion, prepared foods $9.9 billion, and pork $5.8 billion.1Tyson Foods. Tyson Foods, Inc. Form 10-K That spread across every major protein is part of what keeps Tyson on top. When one category faces tight supply or weak demand, another can carry the quarter.
Tyson produces roughly 20 percent of the beef, pork, and chicken sold in the United States, a share no other single company matches.2Tyson Foods. Investors The company employed about 133,000 workers as of September 2025 across slaughter plants, further-processing facilities, and distribution centers.3Tyson Foods. Tyson Foods Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2025 Results It is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, and publicly traded.
JBS USA and Pilgrim’s Pride
JBS USA is the American arm of JBS S.A., a Brazilian company founded more than 70 years ago and now the world’s largest meat producer by global revenue. JBS Beef North America generated $28.1 billion in net revenue in 2025, and JBS USA Pork added another $8.4 billion. JBS also owns Pilgrim’s Pride, one of the two largest chicken producers in the country. Combined, JBS’s North American operations rival Tyson’s, though the exact comparison depends on how you draw the lines around each company.
Globally, JBS reported net revenue of $72.9 billion for 2023, the most recent full year in its SEC filings.4U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. JBS S.A. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations In May 2025, JBS shareholders approved a dual listing that will place shares on a U.S. exchange alongside the existing Brazilian listing.5JBS Foods. JBS Shareholders Approve Dual Listing The company operates more than 250 production facilities across 17 countries.
Leaders by Protein: Beef, Pork, and Chicken
Looking at individual proteins shifts the picture. In beef, JBS and Tyson are the two largest processors, with Cargill and National Beef Packing rounding out the top four. These plants can process thousands of head of cattle a day, and federal inspectors from the Food Safety and Inspection Service are present in every plant during slaughter, as required by the Federal Meat Inspection Act.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 21 USC Ch. 12 – Meat Inspection
In pork, Smithfield Foods has long been considered the dominant processor and operates what it describes as the world’s largest and most modern pork processing facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina. Smithfield is scaling back its hog production: its most recent annual report disclosed plans to reduce internal hog volume to fewer than 10 million head, moving nearly 4 million hogs out of its production segment through two major agreements.7Smithfield Foods. Smithfield Foods Annual Report JBS, Hormel, and Tyson are the other major pork processors.
In chicken, Tyson and Pilgrim’s Pride dominate. Because Pilgrim’s Pride is owned by JBS, the Brazilian parent effectively controls large shares of both the beef and chicken markets at once. Poultry operations rely heavily on contract farming: the company owns the birds and supplies the feed, and independent growers provide the labor and housing.
How Concentrated the Industry Is
The meat industry is strikingly concentrated. In beef, the four largest processors controlled about 85 percent of steer and heifer slaughter as recently as 2015, though USDA data showed that figure had moderated to roughly 77 percent by 2021.8U.S. Department of Agriculture. Consolidation and Concentration in U.S. Meat Processing In pork, the top four processors hold an estimated two-thirds of the market. Poultry looks similar, with a handful of companies processing most of the nation’s broiler chickens.
That concentration puts pricing power in a small group of hands. When ranchers or hog farmers are ready to sell, they often have only one or two buyers within trucking distance. The Packers and Stockyards Act gives the federal government authority to prevent unfair, deceptive, and monopolistic practices in the livestock and meat industries.9Agricultural Marketing Service. Packers and Stockyards Act
Price-Fixing Cases Against the Big Producers
The concern about concentration is not theoretical. Pilgrim’s Pride pleaded guilty in 2021 to participating in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products from at least 2012 through 2017, and the court sentenced the company to pay approximately $107 million in criminal fines.10U.S. Department of Justice. One of the Nation’s Largest Chicken Producers Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing and Sentenced to $107 Million Criminal Fine In early 2025, JBS agreed to pay $83.5 million to settle beef price-fixing allegations. In October 2024, McDonald’s sued the four largest beef processors, alleging they colluded to inflate beef prices through practices dating back to 2015. The DOJ’s Antitrust Division has opened its own investigation into major meatpackers and created a whistleblower rewards program offering up to 30 percent of any resulting criminal fine.
The Sherman Antitrust Act makes it a felony for corporations to conspire to fix prices or restrain trade, with fines up to $100 million per violation and up to 10 years of imprisonment for individuals involved.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1 – Trusts, etc., in Restraint of Trade Illegal
Which Big Producers Are Foreign-Owned
Two of the largest names in American meat are controlled by foreign parents. JBS USA is a subsidiary of JBS S.A., headquartered in Brazil and controlled by the Batista family’s J&F holding company.5JBS Foods. JBS Shareholders Approve Dual Listing
Smithfield Foods was acquired in 2013 by Hong Kong-based WH Group, then called Shuanghui International. In January 2025, Smithfield completed an initial public offering at $20 per share, but WH Group retained approximately 93 percent of voting shares, making Smithfield a “controlled company” under Nasdaq rules. Before the IPO, Smithfield transferred its European operations to WH Group, narrowing its focus to the United States and Mexico.12Smithfield Foods, Inc. Smithfield Foods 424B4 Prospectus The WH Group acquisition was cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews deals that could affect national security. Smithfield currently owns approximately 85,000 acres of farmland across the country.
Where the Biggest Plants Operate
Large-scale meat processing clusters in regions with direct access to livestock and cheap feed grain. The Great Plains and upper Midwest anchor beef and pork: Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and parts of Texas and Colorado host some of the largest slaughter facilities in the world. A single plant in these areas might employ several thousand workers and process thousands of cattle or hogs daily, often making it the largest employer in its county.
Poultry production is concentrated in the Southeast, especially Arkansas (Tyson’s home state), Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina. The clustering keeps animals close to processing plants, which lowers transport costs and reduces stress on livestock, both of which affect meat quality and yield.