It wasn’t common knowledge exactly but it leaked when this (and many other) cases came out. This was so systemic that people got sloppy as they do. There’s more to it than just this link, and I have no doubt there was some effort to squash those leaks. But the did try to initially claim that they couldn’t possibly be price fixing with artificially created shortfalls in slaughter - since they had two years frozen in massive storage facilities.

The amount of fraud that has been found in commodities last couple years is insane.

It relates to this but it was every single one of the big ones, beef and chicken, I think pork was not in it but I’m not sure. https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/jbs-reaches-icebreaker-settlement-beef-price-fixing-claims-2022-02-02/ Specifically U.S. but no doubt it affected global chains