Archer Daniels Midland has agreed to pay $45 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of fixing prices for U.S. peanut crops.
The suit was brought by thousands of peanut farmers against ADM, as well as Birdsong Peanuts and Olam International. The three of them buy more than 90% of the nation’s peanuts. Birdsong and Olam settled earlier for a combined $58 million. Like the other two defendants, ADM says it did nothing wrong but wants to avoid any further litigation-related expense.
The suit charged that the three defendants drove down peanut prices by overstating the amount they had in inventory, creating a false picture of an oversupply. The plaintiffs’ lawyers introduced evidence of communications among the defendants that directly referred to specific prices.
“I’m glad that somebody had to take some responsibility,” a former peanut farmer who quit agriculture after going bankrupt in 2016 told the Wall Street Journal.
