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US: Georgia chicken firm pays US$2.25m to exit lawsuit

By  |  November 8, 2018

A Georgian chicken producer, has agreed to pay US$2.2. million to extract itself from a federal, class-action lawsuit alleging massive price fixing by the major players in the broiler industry, a conspiracy the plaintiffs say was aided by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

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    The settlement agreement is the latest development in one of a growing number of lawsuits targeting some of Georgia’s largest chicken producers. Lawyers behind the suits say their clients and consumers were harmed by a conspiracy to keep chicken prices artificially high for years despite declining costs by manipulating the “Georgia Dock,” a pricing index for whole chickens maintained for decades by the Agriculture Department.

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    The lawsuits target household names like Tyson, Perdue, and Pilgrim’s Pride, companies with large footprints in North Georgia’s chicken-producing region. The companies are the leading broiler suppliers, controlling 90% of the US$30 billion wholesale market that stretches around the globe.

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