(NAFB) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division regarding the acquisition of Sanderson Farms by Cargill and Continental Grain Company.

Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, is asking the Justice Department to thoroughly examine the proposed acquisition and to consult with the USDA on its effect on the poultry industry.

“At the closing of the transaction, Cargill and Continental Grain will combine Sanderson Farms, the third-largest poultry producer in the U.S., with Wayne Farms, currently a subsidiary of Continental Grain, to form a new poultry business,” Grassley says in the letter addressed to Richard Powers, Acting Assistant Attorney General. “According to industry analysts, a combined Cargill-Continental Grain-Sanderson Farms would control approximately 15 percent of the U.S. chicken market.”

Grassley also says he’s concerned that continued mergers and acquisitions in an already concentrated poultry industry will increase consolidation, frustrate competition, reduce marketing options, and ultimately raise consumer prices.

“I urge the Antitrust Division to thoroughly examine this proposed acquisition to preserve a competitive market in the U.S. poultry industry,” Grassley says. “I also urge the division to seek input from the USDA in its analysis of the proposed transaction and its impact on the poultry market.”