Four U.S. senators asked a national security panel on Tuesday to review whether Marfrig Global Foods SA’s (MRFG3.SA) planned $969 million acquisition of Missouri-based National Beef Packing Co [NBEEF.UL] threatens the safety of the U.S. food supply.
The farm state legislators, who are members of the U.S. Senate’s Agriculture Committee, said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that they were concerned Brazil-based Marfrig was seeking to buy National Beef after the United States last year banned imports of fresh Brazilian beef over safety concerns.
Senators Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Sherrod Brown of Ohio requested that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is overseen by the Treasury, review the deal.
It follows a string of other acquisitions of U.S. food and farm businesses by foreign companies in recent years.
“It has become increasingly clear that growing foreign investment in U.S. agriculture requires a thorough review process to safeguard the American food system,” the letter said.
A representative for Marfrig had no immediate comment. National Beef and the Treasury Department could not immediately be reached for comment.
Marfrig said on April 9 that it would buy control of National Beef, the United States’ fourth-largest beef processor, in a deal that would make it the world’s No. 2 beef processor.
The Senate agriculture committee has not reached any conclusions about the deal, according to the letter to Mnuchin. It asked him to include the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration in the review of the transaction.
“The increasing trend of foreign investment in our food system should be met with careful scrutiny from the relevant experts in order to safeguard the security of our nation’s food supply,” the letter said.
China’s Shuanghui International Holdings, now known as WH Group Ltd (0288.HK), bought U.S. pork processor Smithfield Foods in 2013 for about $7.1 billion, including debt. At the time, it was the biggest-ever purchase of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm.
China’s ChemChina last year bought Swiss-based crop chemicals company Syngenta AG (SYENF.PK), which also has operations in the United States, for about $43 billion.
German drugs and pesticides group Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) plans to acquire U.S. seed company Monsanto Co (MON.N) within the second quarter in a $62.5 billion deal.