>>16430273 Smithfield Foods to shutter California meat-packing plant
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Who’s behind the Chinese takeover of world’s biggest pork producer?
Sep 12, 2014 7:44 PM EDT
MAN:
Questions are being raised about why China wants our pigs.
NATHAN HALVERSON:
The takeover raised concerns the Chinese government was a hidden player in the deal. Some members of Congress wondered why Shuanghui group would pay more than Smithfield's market value.
SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW, (D) Michigan: The Chinese paid a 30 percent premium. Very interesting. Not exactly the best business deal, so what's really going on here? What really is it that this merger, this purchase, was all about?
NATHAN HALVERSON:
Senator Debbie Stabenow heads the Senate Agriculture Committee. She says food is a strategic resource that should be as important to the U.S. government as oil.
SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW:
This isn't just an acquisition of a company. It's 25 percent of the pork industry in the United States.
NATHAN HALVERSON:
Stabenow worried that the Smithfield takeover could signal a long-term threat to the vital American food industry.
SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW:
This is a precedent-setting case.
NATHAN HALVERSON:
As the U.S. government reviewed the deal, Stabenow called a Senate hearing to take a deeper look at the first Chinese purchase of a major American food company.
MAN:
This is really all about control.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whos-behind-chinese-takeover-worlds-biggest-pork-producer