BRF and Marfrig announce merger
If the proposed merger of the Brazilian multinational corporations BRF and Marfrig finally comes through, the new global giant that will be formed threatens to increase concentration in the meat sector and the food industry in general.
Daniel Gatti
22 | 5 | 2025
Photo: Agencia Brasil
Both corporations said on May 15 that they would be creating a new company under the name MBRF Foods Company, with a projected yearly income of USD 27 billion, operations in nearly 120 countries, and an estimated production of 8 million tons of a range of primarily meat, poultry, and lamb products, which will reach some 425,000 clients.
The new company will employ a total of 130,000 people, 100,000 from BRF and 30,000 from Marfrig.
Marfrig is currently one of the leading hamburger producers in the world, behind JBS, another Brazilian multinational corporation and a global leader in animal protein production, with which MBRF now aspires to compete on equal standing.
Marfrig’s production is concentrated in 31 plants it owns in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and the United States.
The projected food industry giant hopes to grow primarily in the United States, the Middle East, and China.
Almost half (43 percent) of MBRF’s total sales will be in the U.S. market, Marcos Molina, founder and controller of Marfrig and future chairman of the boards of directors of Marfrig and BRF, told the magazine Valor Económico.
“BRF already has a very efficient distribution process in the Middle East. With the merger, we will be adding Marfrig beef to that distributor’s portfolio,” he said.
The merger, which still needs to be approved by the shareholders’ meetings of the two companies, scheduled to be held on June18, will mean a greater concentration in the sector than the mere sum of these two giants.
The new group’s second largest shareholder will be Salic, a Saudi Arabian fund, which will have 10 percent of the shares of MBRF.
Salic currently has a controlling interest in Minerva, another Brazilian meatpacking company.
In Uruguay, for example, as a result of this merger, the Commission for the Promotion and Defense of Competition will need to examine once again the monopoly implications in one of the country’s leading economic sectors.
The Commission recently opposed Minerva’s acquisition of three of the five plants Marfrig owns in the country.