Tyson Foods is selling less meat but getting more money for it.
That’s the takeaway from the company’s latest quarterly report, which covers the three months ending Sept. 30. It shows a drop in production of 11% overall, including 15% for beef and 18% for pork. Tyson officials attributed the lower production mostly to difficulty in finding labor, with some weather-related problems as well.
However, helped by higher meat prices, Tyson managed to put up some good numbers. Revenue went up 12%, to $12.8 billion, and earnings more than doubled, to $1.36 billion. Even stripping out one-time items, earnings per share were up 28%.
The earnings were attributable almost entirely to inflation in meat prices, with pork up 38% over last year and beef prices up by a third. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating America’s major meat companies, including Tyson, in a search for antitrust violations.
