On Wednesday, US Senators looked for answers from the head of Smithfield Foods. This was about the proposed sale of the Virginia ham maker to China's biggest producer. The Senate inquired possible threat that could raise food safety and increase prices for American consumers.
There was no indication that the Congress would intervene to block the deal. According to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairperson Debbie Stabenow, she was worried that the said deal would undermine the long term competitiveness of the US pork industry. This would transpire through exporting valuable production techniques to China.
Stabenow told reporters that as more Chinese owned firms purchased US food companies, it is indeed America's interest as the food processing industry in the US would be owned by a foreign country.
The sale of Smithfield Foods to China was the biggest Chinese takeover of a US company to date. The deal was priced at US$4.7 billion. Smithfield is the world's biggest producer of pork meat with more than 46,000 employees working in 25 states and four countries.
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