The U.S. Justice Department confirmed that it's investigating potential antitrust violations in the meatpacking industry in response to soaring domestic beef prices and a shrinking cattle herd.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to provide additional details about the probe, but said the agency would seek to move rapidly. 

“There is a lot of work that has been done and a lot of work to do,” said Blanche, who took over as the head of the Justice Department after President Donald Trump fired his first attorney general last month. “We are moving as quickly as we can.”

Bloomberg reported late last month that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into how meatpackers including JBS NV and Tyson Foods Inc. purchase cattle from ranchers. That investigation, which also involves a separate probe by the department’s civil attorneys, came after Trump last November ordered the Justice Department to look into the meatpacking industry amid record beef prices.

Spokespersons for JBS, Tyson, Cargill Inc. and National Beef didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Blanche declined to answer questions about how the current probe differs from one initiated during the first Trump administration that the Justice Department closed last year. 

The use of so-called alternative marketing agreements between cattle feedlots and meatpackers, instead of open auctions, has long drawn scrutiny. Such contracts are based on reported spot market prices, but consolidation in the industry — four companies control about 85% of U.S. cattle purchases — has in the past raised concerns from ranchers that those base prices could be distorted, according to the Agriculture Department.

But the severity of the current cattle shortage has sent prices so high that meatpackers are losing money on every animal they process, according to data from HedgersEdge. Cattle futures in Chicago reached a record high last week, and U.S. beef imports have risen to meet domestic demand.

Julie Anna Potts, the head of industry group Meat Institute, said beef packers have been losing money as they “continue to pay feeders and cattle producers record breaking prices because there are not enough cattle to meet strong consumer demand for beef.” The group said it had no comment on the Department of Justice’s investigation.

At a May 4 press conference, Blanche and Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, said the Justice Department had separately reached a settlement to resolve an antitrust lawsuit against Indiana-based data provider Agri Stats Inc. The Justice Department sued Agri Stats in 2023 for allegedly helping poultry and pork processors collude on the wholesale prices they set for sales to leading grocery stores. The case was set for trial later this month.

Agri Stats declined to comment.