JBS Boosts Ground Beef, Wagyu Steak Production to Stem Beef Losses

By Patrick Thomas

JBS, the largest beef processor in the U.S., is leaning into the pricier Wagyu and expanding ground-beef production to help cope with rising cattle costs.

Meatpackers like JBS and Tyson Foods are being squeezed by the lowest U.S. cattle supply since the 1950s. It's driving their beef costs to record levels, and leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses as a result.

On Thursday, JBS reported a $95 million adjusted operating loss for the three months that ended Sept. 30 in its North American beef business, compared with a $6 million loss in the prior-year period.

JBS has been working to scrape as much meat as possible off each cattle carcass moving through its larger processing plants. At its smaller, regional plants, the company is expanding specialty programs to produce more grass-fed, organic and typically higher-end beef, said Wesley Batista Filho, chief executive of JBS's U.S. business, in an interview.

"We are accelerating those things, because there is a demand," he said.

The results also come a week after President Trump announced the Justice Department had launched an investigation into meatpacking companies and whether they are engaging in collusion to drive up prices. JBS and other meatpackers have not commented on the probe.

There are few ways to alleviate stress in the beef market in the short term.

Batista Filho said easing restrictions on Mexican cattle imports, which are currently barred from the U.S. due to a flesh-eating parasite, would help. Mexico sends about a million cattle across the border each year to Texas feedlots, where they are fattened up for slaughter.

He cautioned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has to wait to open the border until it's confident the parasite won't spread to American herds. "That's the biggest impact that you can see in supply," he said.

Overall, JBS reported a quarterly profit of $644.1 million, helped by the performance of its chicken business and beef units in Australia and Brazil.

Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com

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November 14, 2025 10:20 ET (15:20 GMT)