Perdue Farms Inc. has attracted interest from potential domestic and international suitors as protein demand expands globally, although the third-largest U.S. chicken producer says it plans to continue as a family-owned business.
“We have not had talks with anybody,” said Jim Perdue, the company’s chairman and public face who has appeared on its television commercials. “But you get phone calls.”
Those inquiries are just the latest illustration of how global companies are eying U.S. poultry and meat suppliers. Non-U.S. companies have increased their interest in the nation’s chicken industry to about 25 percent from zero before the financial crisis, according to Perdue.
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