The company, whose products include beef, poultry and pork, posted a net profit of $415 million (C$574.8 million) for the October-December period, up 0.5 per cent from a year earlier but slightly below the $428 million forecast by analysts polled by LSEG.

JBS said tighter cattle supplies in the United States have driven up livestock costs and squeezed margins in its North American beef division, its largest business by revenue.

Chief Executive Gilberto Tomazoni told Reuters the U.S. cattle supply outlook would remain challenging this year because of the current downturn in the livestock cycle. The company also faces a labor strike at a Colorado plant.

“We don’t think there will be any significant change this year in U.S. cattle supply. It will continue to be a difficult year for us,” he said, adding that strong customer demand could help offset some of the pressure.

North American beef still better than expected

Analysts said despite the pressures on the business, the results from JBS’ North American beef division were better than expected, including the year-over-year margin compression.

“This reflects resilient U.S. demand and disciplined cost management, even as cattle prices remained high,” analysts at JPMorgan wrote.

Santander analysts said they believed tailwinds from derivatives contracts helped to offset elevated U.S. cattle prices, and noted beef demand remained strong despite higher prices.

JBS shares were little changed in after-hours trading. In a separate statement, the firm announced dividends of $1 per share.

JBS’ total adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell seven per cent to $1.72 billion (C$2.38 billion), but above analysts’ forecasts of $1.56 billion. The adjusted EBITDA margin fell 1.8 percentage points to 7.4 per cent.

Net revenue rose 15 per cent to a record $23.06 billion (C$31.94 billion), topping analysts’ estimate of $22.38 billion, helped by record sales in its North American and Brazilian beef operations.

Logistics costs and China’s measures

Tomazoni said the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran had increased logistics costs, but he said trade flows remained open and the firm has not seen impacts on protein demand in the Persian Gulf. JBS’ three factories in the Middle East are working normally, he added.

JBS, like other beef exporting companies, also faces restrictions in 2026 on expanding shipments to China, as the Asian country has implemented curbs, including quotas and tariffs, on beef imports from key supplier nations.

He said in Brazil’s case, the country will have to place the volumes that do not go to China in other markets, adding domestic sales could partially offset the impact of the restrictions.

— Additional reporting by Utkarsh Shetti in Bengaluru

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JBS workers strike in Colorado

Beef packers have scaled back production in recent weeks and traders are monitoring developments at a large JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., where workers have gone on strike.

The dispute reduces U.S. beef production capacity at a time when consumers face record prices for hamburgers and steaks and Trump has struggled to make good on a pledge to cool costs.

The workers have launched a two-week strike and will remain on the picket lines until JBS negotiates fairly with workers, according to the union.

Beef prices soared after a years-long drought burned up grazing lands and drove ranchers to slash their herds to the lowest level in 75 years.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange April live cattle settled 2.35 cents higher at 233.25 cents per pound (USD). April feeders finished up 12.30 cents at 355.45 cents per pound.

Beef packer margins rose to US$57.10 per head on Monday, up from gains of $45.20 on Friday, and losses of $117.95 a week ago, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.

CME lean hog futures ended up 0.05 cents at 93.50 cents per pound.

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The labor disruption pits a workforce made up largely of immigrants against the world’s largest meat company, and it has already driven ranchers to deliver cattle to alternate facilities.

Beef prices set records this year after the nation’s cattle supply dropped to a 75-year low. Meatpackers including JBS benefit from climbing prices but also must pay record costs to buy cattle to slaughter.

JBS in November reported third-quarter profit of $581 million (C$787.4 million), down from $693 million a year earlier.

Contract not negotiated fairly says union

“While customers are paying more than they ever have, none of that is trickling down to the frontline worker that’s actually doing all the heavy work,” said Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union that represents workers in Greeley.

JBS has participated in unfair labor practices and not negotiated fairly on a new contract over the past eight months, Cordova said. Workers sought wages that keep pace with inflation and wanted the company to stop charging them for replacing protective equipment they wear to do their jobs safely, she said.

JBS said it complies with labor laws, sought to reach a fair agreement, and charges employees for protective equipment that is lost or maliciously damaged.

“We stand by the offer we presented,” JBS said. “It is strong, fair, and consistent with the historic national contract reached in 2025.”

Last year, unionized meatpacking workers at multiple plants ratified a first-ever national contract with JBS. However, workers in Greeley already had some benefits in that contract, including sick leave, Cordova said.

JBS did not slaughter Monday

JBS said it was now adjusting cattle deliveries and processing schedules at Greeley and shifting production to other facilities to meet customer needs.

The company did not slaughter cattle at the plant on Monday. Cattle feeders said JBS canceled slaughtering in Greeley for the whole week, and one feeder said he was delivering livestock to a company facility in Cactus, Texas, instead.

“We’ve got way more kill space than finished cattle ready to slaughter,” said Corbitt Wall, a livestock market analyst for DVAuction. Ranchers will “just move them somewhere else.”

Rival meatpacker Tyson Foods closed a massive beef plant in Nebraska this year.

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The company said third-quarter profit dropped to $581 million (C$815.1 million) from $693 million in the year-ago quarter, citing negative beef margins in the U.S. amid multiyear-low cattle supplies.

Why it matters: Diminished beef cattle herds in North America have led to record-high prices for cattle producers as processors compete to fill demand.

“The industry continues to navigate a challenging cattle cycle, with limited cattle availability for processing,” JBS said in the earnings statement. “With cattle supplies at historically low levels, live cattle prices have remained high, pressuring profitability.”

In remarks about results, CEO Gilberto Tomazoni noted the situation is unlikely to be resolved soon.

JBS’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of operating income known as EBITDA, came in at $1.835 billion (C$2.574 billion), smaller than the $2.153 billion reported a year ago, the company said.

Net sales, however, rose by 13 per cent to $22.6 billion in the third quarter, having grown across all business segments, the company said.

Regarding Brazilian beef operations, JBS reported strong net sales growth, driven mainly by exports and increases in both sales volumes and prices, as well as by higher meat prices in the domestic market.

Tomazoni said that in 2026, Brazil’s cattle herd might be slightly reduced as more female cows were processed compared with male ones in the second quarter.

Brazil, where JBS was founded, is the world’s largest beef exporter. It still boasts the world’s biggest commercial cattle herd.

For its Seara processed foods division, JBS said it posted the highest export volume in history despite temporary trade bans imposed by key importers such as China and Europe due to an avian influenza case in Brazil in May.

The company said those restrictions forced it to redirect certain chicken meat cuts to other markets, which drove a price drop.

The appreciation of the Brazilian currency also negatively affected the company’s meat exports out of Brazil, Tomazoni noted.

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“The imminence of the cattle cycle shift brings challenges. We are preparing through partnerships, contracts, and close relationships with ranchers to preserve our volumes,” Eduardo Pedroso, executive director of origination at Friboi JBS, told reporters at an event in Sao Paulo.

Why it matters: JBS is the world’s largest meat producer and Brazil is the top beef exporter. A decrease in cattle supply would come at a time when other meat producing nations, including the United States, face similar shortages.

Brazil has experienced a significant increase in cattle slaughter over the past 24 months due to oversupply, which allowed for higher processing rates in the country’s meat industry. However, signs now point to reduced supply next year.

According to consultancy Datagro, cattle slaughter in the country is expected to drop more than nine per cent in 2026 from this year, reaching 37.1 million animals, after estimated jumps of more than 16 per cent between 2023 and 2024 and three per cent from 2024 to 2025.

“With crop-livestock integration, tech adoption, earlier slaughter age, and productivity gains, cycle impacts can be softened. That’s what we expect,” Pedroso said.

Exports to U.S. expected to fall

Brazil’s beef exports to the United States are expected to falling further in September from the previous months, the head of local beef lobby Abiec said on Wednesday, in a move linked to higher tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on goods from Brazil.

“The loss of our second-largest market makes a difference,” Robert Perosa said at an event hosted by consultancy firm Datagro. “But surprisingly, even with the 76.4 per cent tariff, there are still exports to the U.S. because of the competitiveness we have gained.”

Perosa said that beef exports to the U.S. should fall to about 7,000 metric tons in September, from around 9,000 tons in August and 30,000 tons per month in the period preceding the tariffs, which came into force in August.

The U.S. used to be the second-largest buyer of beef from Brazil. That changed last month, when Mexico took over the position after Trump imposed a 50 per cent levy on U.S. imports of several Brazilian goods.

The fresh duties added to a 26.4 per cent import tax faced by Brazilian beef that was shipped outside a previously established quota.

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In remarks made after releasing second quarter results, the world’s largest meat company said other factors affecting its U.S. beef operation, which accounts for about a third of its net sales, include the U.S. closure of its border with Mexico in May due to a New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite.

“The Mexican situation is obviously relevant,” said Wesley Batista Jr, who leads JBS’ U.S. operations.

The Mexican and the U.S. governments are in talks for potentially reopening the border, he said, estimating around 1.1 million head of feeder cattle cannot go through at this point.

Other operating challenges in the U.S. for the company include the pork business, which has been heavily hit since U.S. President Donald Trump started a trade war with Beijing.

Restrictions on Brazilian chicken exports from China and the European Union, enforced since May after a bird flu outbreak in the world’s largest poultry exporter, are also weighing on JBS, which in June created a dual U.S.-Brazil listing.

CEO Gilberto Tomazoni estimated that if sanitary trade barriers are not removed, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of its Brazil Seara prepared foods division may be impacted by around 1.5 per cent.

Seara’s margins, however, remained in the double digits despite bird flu-related disruptions in the second quarter.

Bolstered also by strong results from JBS’ poultry processor Pilgrims Pride, the firm, now listed in New York, posted record overall net sales of $21 billion (C$29.01 billion) while net profit rose nearly 61 per cent to $528.1 million (C$729.6 billion) in the second quarter.

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A U.S. listing for the world’s biggest meatpacker, which the company has sought since 2009, comes as the brothers, now back on the board of JBS, have also recovered much of their vaunted influence among Brazil’s political elite.

Their prominence was on display on Saturday when Wesley Batista, fresh off a trip to Paris with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took the stage to discuss the economic outlook with Brazil’s central bank chief and senior bankers.

‘They’re back because they’re investing’

Batista was in good spirits, pushing back against some of the criticism that Brazilian business leaders have leveled against Lula’s leftist government.

“We need to look at what’s working too, because everyone here is making investment plans and growing,” he told the beachside gathering in Sao Paulo state, drawing applause.

Few business leaders can match the brothers’ access in the capital Brasilia. Lula’s public agenda shows that one or both have appeared alongside the president during at least five public events since last year.

They have also held several private meetings with Lula and his ministers, two people with knowledge of the cabinet’s private schedules said.

JBS said its meetings with public officials adhere to its code of conduct. The presidential press office did not respond to questions about the meetings.

It is a far cry from the brothers’ nadir nearly a decade ago, when they confessed to bribing hundreds of politicians, stepped away from their corporate empire and spent months in jail fighting insider trading allegations.

“They’re back because they’re investing,” said a person close to Brazil’s presidency.

Growing global influence

JBS operates hundreds of meatpacking plants across more than 20 countries, rivaling Tyson Foods in the U.S. beef market and ranking among Brazil’s biggest companies by revenue and employment. The Batistas’ parent company, J&F, has expanded across the Brazilian economy into banking, energy and logistics.

A $5 million donation by JBS subsidiary Pilgrim’s Pride to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee underscored the growing global reach of their influence.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren grilled JBS in a public letter last month, suggesting the donation and subsequent approval of the U.S. listing by the Securities Exchange Commission within months “raise serious concerns about a potential quid-pro-quo arrangement.”

In response to questions about the donation, JBS said that Pilgrim’s “has a long bipartisan history of participating in the civic process.”

Operation Car Wash

The brothers’ rehabilitation extends beyond politics.

After years embroiled in Brazil’s biggest-ever corruption scandal, Operation Car Wash, J&F has secured a court order suspending a $2 billion fine for its role in the scheme.

At the height of the scandal, the brothers admitted to bribing some 1,800 politicians. In 2017, Joesley Batista recorded a conversation allegedly discussing a bribery scheme with then-President Michel Temer as part of a plea bargain deal.

The Batista brothers, who stepped away from JBS leadership positions during stretches of the scandal, were later arrested for alleged insider trading based on that sealed plea deal. They were later acquitted in the case.

In 2023, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice suspended the fine against J&F in their plea deal, accepting the argument that prosecutors were biased at the time. The case awaits wider review by the court.

“The conflicts of the past were well handled in a conciliatory way,” said Fabio Medina Osorio, Brazil’s solicitor general during the Temer administration.

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At a shareholder assembly, the company’s listing plan was approved by the votes from minority shareholders, cast both remotely and in person voting.

On Thursday, the company said a preliminary count showed about 52 per cent of remote votes were against the plan, raising doubts about its chances.

Analysts and proxy advisory firms had debated the merits of the company’s dual listing proposal.

Some touted the chance to bring its valuation in line with international peers with a U.S. listing, but some advisory firms warned that a new dual-class share structure was likely to reduce the voting power of minority shareholders.

— Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes

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Why it matters: The Canadian beef sector is highly integrated with the U.S. industry

While the operating environment will remain challenging this year, management sees room for margins at the company’s U.S. beef division to improve by one to 1.5 percentage points in the next few quarters.

Speaking with analysts to discuss first-quarter results, managers answered questions regarding the outlook for global operations, especially in the U.S., Brazil and Australia.

The company said it sees strong demand for proteins across all regions and expects to continue expanding, including through acquisitions.

Chief Financial Officer Guilherme Cavalcanti, who emphasized JBS’ ability to reduce debt through cash generation in 2024, said the company could pay higher dividends this year if no “opportunistic” acquisitions arise.

Asked about U.S. tariffs against countries such as Mexico and Canada, management said it was difficult to assess their impact because variables keep changing.

Director-at-large Wesley Mendonça Batista Filho said a better assessment could be made after April 2, noting trade measures already announced by the Trump administration did not affect JBS’ first-quarter performance.

Regarding plans for a primary share listing in New York, CEO Gilberto Tomazoni said he expects the process to be concluded by the end of the year. He cautioned, however, JBS has no control over approval of the plan, which depends on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and shareholders to proceed.

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Sarah Klopatek is the chief livestock scientist at JBS where she focuses on cattle system dynamics and sustainability in livestock. She spoke at the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference on January 29 in Saskatoon, Sask.

Frequently, the beef industry is criticized for being bad for the environment. Cattle are well known for the methane they produce and have been under fire for emitting more greenhouse gases than other forms of agriculture.

However, Klopatek says this isn’t the full story. In total, livestock equal about 4.8 per cent of all direct emissions in Canada, with cattle making up half of that number. If you include indirect emissions and how many greenhouse gases are emitted from farm to plate, the ag sector totals around 30 per cent globally.

“It’s going to be higher because it’s including all of the other sectors to get the food to your plate, and it includes the emissions from after you throw your plate out,” Klopatek said. “Globally, the systems are not nearly as efficient in developing nations as they are in Canada and the United States.”

Developed nations emit less greenhouse gases for the amount of beef they produce because of the focus on efficiency. Klopatek said it takes developing countries four animals to produce the same amount of beef as one cow in Canada.

“There is extreme variation in carbon intensities in different beef cattle systems across the world. And so we’re looking at ten to 15 to 50 to 100 times greater in different systems.”

So, when focusing on global emissions, the solution isn’t to eat less meat – instead, it is to help developing countries become more efficient, she said. This is why countries like Canada and the United States are producing more meat than ever, even though their cattle herds are decreasing.

And, from 2014 to 2024, the Canadian beef sector has decreased its greenhouse gas emissions by 17.5 per cent.

“We cannot let people wiggle out of the efficiency angle, because at the end of the day, yes, we need to lower emissions and we need to produce more food. If you put resources into these nations that are using four cows instead of one, that’s how you can help fix food security, and that’s how you can truly reduce emissions,” Klopatek said.

Overall, management style is what can significantly affect greenhouse gas emissions. Klopatek said if you want to make a difference in your carbon footprint, you should have goals that you adapt your management practices to achieve. Examples of this are health, grazing, genetics, etc.

She said it is also important to combat misinformation about the beef industry and spread the word about the good work that is being done by cattle producers.

“There is a great deal that can be done. And to be honest, it’s not going out and being like, here’s your CV. What it is management, is continued efficiency of the system, and it’s doing what the US and Canada has done over the last 50 years, and it’s getting that out to the world,” she said.

“Efficiency is so important, because it’s everything, it’s greenhouse gases, it’s profitability, it’s food security.”

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