{"license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","dataset":"reports","count":1,"filters":{"report":"meatpacking-buyer-power","reportMatched":true,"reportId":"rep-meatpacking-buyer-power","reportSlug":"meatpacking-buyer-power","reportTitle":"Beef Meatpacking Buyer Power"},"rows":[{"id":"rep-meatpacking-buyer-power","slug":"meatpacking-buyer-power","title":"Beef Meatpacking Buyer Power","subtitle":"Why an 85% procurement CR4 is not the same as an industry HHI","summary":"A source-backed briefing on national beef-packer buyer concentration, the related Census slaughtering-industry screen, and the market boundaries neither metric can establish.","body":"USDA Economic Research Service reports that the four largest beef packers handled 36 percent of U.S. steer and heifer purchases in 1980, 81 percent in 1995, and 85 percent by 2019. That national buyer-side CR4 documents a major structural shift, but it does not reveal individual packer shares or the regional procurement choices facing a particular rancher. The related 2022 Economic Census screen for NAICS 311611, Animal (except poultry) slaughtering, reports revenue HHI 1,250.7 and CR4 66.0, compared with HHI 1,174.8 and CR4 63.4 in 2017. The Census revenue screen and USDA procurement CR4 use different denominators and answer different questions, so Antitrust Radar keeps them linked but never combines them into one score. Stronger public evidence would publish individual packer purchase shares and reproducible regional procurement tables while retaining capacity, entry, cost, cattle-price, and wholesale-spread context.","coverImageUrl":null,"publishedAt":"2026-07-19","relatedMarketIds":["mkt-meatpacking"],"sourceIds":["usda-ers-meatpacking-2024","census-ecnsize-concentration-2022","census-ecnsize-concentration-2017"],"sourceBasis":"USDA ERS historical national CR4 for steer and heifer purchases, paired with separately bounded 2017 and 2022 Economic Census revenue concentration rows for NAICS 311611.","tableOfContents":["Buyer-side concentration","Historical shift","Related industry screen","Why the metrics differ","Public data agenda"],"preview":"Explains what the national beef-packer CR4 reveals, why HHI remains withheld, and how the related Census industry screen should be used without redefining a cattle procurement market.","publicationType":"research_brief","seriesTitle":"Competition Research Briefs","seriesNumber":"AR-RB-2026-01","authorName":"Antitrust Radar Research Team","version":"1.0","updatedAt":"2026-07-19","publicationStatus":"current","revisionNote":"Initial public edition.","canonicalCitation":"Antitrust Radar Research Team. (2026, July 19). Beef Meatpacking Buyer Power: Why an 85% procurement CR4 is not the same as an industry HHI. Competition Research Briefs, AR-RB-2026-01 (Version 1.0). Antitrust Radar. https://antitrustradar.org/reports/meatpacking-buyer-power","citationDownloads":{"bibtex":"/reports/meatpacking-buyer-power/citation/bibtex","ris":"/reports/meatpacking-buyer-power/citation/ris"},"sourceProfileHrefs":["/sources/usda-ers-meatpacking-2024","/sources/census-ecnsize-concentration-2022","/sources/census-ecnsize-concentration-2017"]}]}