RTTNews | Nov 16, 2021 07:31AM EST

07:31 Tuesday, November 16, 2021 (RTTNews.com) - Tyson Foods Inc. is planning further increases in meat prices citing soaring costs as the biggest U.S. meat company works to recover inflation. The company announced the plans while reporting significant growth in its fourth-quarter earnings and sales, benefited by sharply raised meat prices.

On the company's quarterly earnings call, Tyson Foods CFO Stewart Glendinning said, "We expect to take continued pricing actions to ensure that any inflationary cost increases that our business incurs are passed along. Pricing has lagged inflation, but we expect to recover those cost increases during fiscal '22."

The meat giant raised prices across all of its major divisions in the quarter, noting that raw material cost, logistics, ingredients, packaging, labor increased its cost of production. Pork average sales price increased more than 40 percent, and chicken average sales price improved over 20 percent.

In the beef segment, offsetting higher sales prices were higher cattle costs, which was up more than 20 percent during the fourth quarter.

The Springdale, Arkansas-based company said it achieved a 24 percent price improvement for the fourth quarter and a 13 percent for the fiscal year.

In the quarter, sales were up approximately 20 percent, largely driven by higher average sales price. According to the company, average sales price trends reflect successful pricing strategies during the ongoing inflationary environment, with notably higher grains, labor, meat and transportation cost.

Meanwhile, volumes were down 4 percent primarily due to labor challenges despite strong retail demand and recovery in foodservice.

Looking forward, the company projects solid profitability in fiscal 2022 with estimated sales growth in a range of 5-7 percent, and volume growth in a range of 2-3 percent.

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