Even in the face of surging grocery prices, retail beef and pork prices cause sticker shock

“Consumers are paying record prices for beef and yet cattle producers are receiving prices comparable to a decade ago and many of them are at the verge of going broke,” he said. With high prices and record exports, the market is generating unprecedented profits for the four main meatpackers — JBS, Tyson, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company/Marfrig — which together control 85 percent of the fed-cattle market. But Bullard says the ranchers aren’t benefiting. Cargill, the largest private U.S. company, is having its most profitable year ever, with $4.3 billion in net income in the first nine months of its fiscal year on the strength of surging meat, corn and soybean prices, the company disclosed to bond investors this past week.