The nation's largest sugar producers stand accused of violating antitrust law and conspiring to fix prices, according to lawsuits filed in federal court in Minnesota this week.

The class-action lawsuits target Edina-based United Sugar Producers and Refiners, a cooperative that includes American Crystal Sugar; Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative; and Wyoming Sugar.

The lawsuits — which Great Harvest Bread in Duluth, Morelos Bakery in St. Paul and a Connecticut restaurant group brought — also named Cargill, Domino and Michigan Sugar among the defendants.

"Since at least 2019, the producing defendants have had an ongoing agreement to artificially raise, fix, stabilize or maintain granulated sugar prices in the United States," the suits alleged.

Monthly sugar price reports Utah-based company Commodity produced facilitated this "conspiracy," the suits said.

United Sugar called the claims "baseless."

"While it is our longstanding practice to not comment extensively on litigation, we believe this case has no merit, and we will vigorously defend ourselves from its baseless accusations," the company said in a statement. "Even so, we will not let it distract us from our mission and our business: delivering the highest-quality sugar to our customers at the best possible prices."

Cargill also denied the allegations.

"We take pride in conducting our business with integrity. We compete vigorously but do so fairly, ethically and in compliance with the law," the Minnetonka-based agribusiness said in a statement.

The suits join a wave of similar antitrust litigation facing the nation's largest meatpackers, including Cargill. Those cases accuse the companies of working behind the scenes to control the price of beef, pork and turkey for their benefit, claims the companies deny. Several of the cases are playing out in federal court in Minnesota.

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