(The Epoch Times)—JBS, the world’s largest meat-processing firm, announced on June 12 that it will close two of its plants in the United States—a beef production facility in Souderton, Pennsylvania, and a value-added facility in Memphis, Tennessee.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s WARN Notices page, the Souderton plant will be officially closed on Aug. 14, affecting 1,485 workers.
The Memphis plant produces packaged and prepared meat products for consumers.
Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, JBS USA said the planned closures are part of the firm’s strategy to focus on growth, modernization, and long-term competitiveness across America.
The company said that earlier this year, it combined its beef and case-ready businesses into a more integrated platform that it contends will improve efficiency and productivity, and expand value-added capabilities.
It has also invested in new facilities and improvements across the country over the past year, which include major expansions in Texas, Georgia, and Iowa, the company said. These developments are slated to grow the prepared foods market and enhance the company’s ability to continue serving its customers in the years ahead.
In November 2025, Tyson Foods announced ending operations at its Lexington, Nebraska, beef facility and converting its Amarillo, Texas, plant to a single, full-capacity shift. The company stated that it needed to “right size” its beef business to position it for long-term success.
Various reports attribute the changes in America’s beef industry to a variety of factors, including rising grocery prices, changing diets, and health concerns.
According to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the average price of ground beef in U.S. cities hit $7.064 per pound in May—up from $6.245 in May 2025. The average price for USDA choice boneless chuck roast reached $9.067 per pound across all major metros, compared with $7.875 the same month last year.
Drovers, a U.S. agriculture industry publication, noted that as higher-income consumers pay more for premium cuts of beef, middle-income consumers will gravitate more toward roasts and non-traditional steak items. This, in turn, will lead lower-income consumers to purchase more ground beef.
In a May report, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas stated that beef consumption has dropped from about 94 pounds per capita in 1976 to 59 pounds per capita in 2025, as higher beef prices and additional choices could result in more Americans seeking alternative animal protein sources, such as chicken or fish.
The bank also noted that the re-emergence of the flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite continues to threaten the beef industry. A screwworm case was confirmed in a calf in Texas, officials announced on June 3. Multiple other cases in animals have since been identified.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in May lowered the 2026 beef production forecast by 243 million pounds to 25.5 billion pounds from the previous month. For 2027, production is predicted to decline by 0.9 percent to 25.3 billion pounds.
In addition, the report indicates that cattle prices skewed higher from April to May and that next year’s prices are projected to reach new highs as supplies remain limited. Beef imports were also higher in May than in April, but next year, imports are expected to decline by 1.8 percent.
