Federal judge rules in favor of Tyson Foods in poultry rendering antitrust case

A federal judge granted Tyson Foods Inc.’s motion for a summary judgment on March 3 in an antitrust suit alleging that the company drove former poultry rendering business American Proteins Inc. (API) out of the market. The judge also dismissed plaintiff API’s motion for a partial summary judgement.

The lawsuit, filed in May 2022 with the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Gainesville Division, arose out of Tyson’s purchase of API’s poultry rendering assets and operations in 2018.

Prior to the acquisition, API was the second-largest supplier of poultry rendering services in the United States and the largest in the Southeast, according to court documents. It operated four plants, including three in Georgia and one in Alabama. At the time, Tyson operated nine profitable poultry rendering plants. Between the two companies, Tyson and API captured a combined 45% of poultry rendering services in the nation.

At that time, Tyson, Wayne Farms and Koch Foods were all major raw material suppliers to API in the Southeast region.