Shares in JBS and Tyson Foods-two of the largest U.S. beef processors-soared Monday after the Department of Agriculture revealed plans to lift a more than yearlong ban on Mexican cattle imports.
The move is expected to help ease a cattle shortage and make it cheaper for meatpackers to buy the livestock that is processed in their plants. Live cattle futures prices-the price meatpackers pay feedlots for their cattle-ticked down about 1.5% on Monday. Shares of Tyson are up 7% today, while JBS stock surged 10%.
Cattle imports from Mexico had been cut off since last year to try and stop the spread of the flesh-eating New World screwworm. Mexico sends roughly a million calves across the border each year to U.S. feedlots where they are fattened prior to slaughter.
JBS and Tyson, which both have large Texas facilities, have both reported hundreds of millions of dollars in losses in their beef business so far this year.
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