Tyson Foods is the second U.S. poultry processor to report contact by the Florida attorney general’s office in an investigation of the former Georgia Dock pricing system, reports the news site Just Food. The wholesale chicken price index was abandoned last year after reports indicated it set prices higher than other indices, “suggesting there may have been over-inflation at the supermarket prices for chicken,” said the site, based in Britain.
As part of a report on its earnings, Tyson said in an SEC filing that it had received a civil investigative demand from the Florida attorney general. “The CID requests information primarily related to possible anti-competitive conduct in connection with the Georgia Dock, a chicken products pricing index, formerly published by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.”
Sanderson Farms said in February that it received a request from the Florida attorney general for “information related to the Georgia Dock index and other information on poultry and poultry products published by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and its poultry market news division. ” Both companies said they are cooperating in the investigation.
The Georgia Dock index was compiled through a survey of processors in Georgia, the No. 1 chicken producing state, and was widely used in setting prices nationally. USDA stopped publishing the index last autumn when questions arose about the accuracy of the report. The Georgia Agriculture Department ended the index last December and launched a new version last month, said Just Food.