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1 1 (February 1, 2022)

handle is hein.amenin/aeiaegi0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Key Points e Prices for pork and oWher rneat pra acts have increased faster than the economy-wide rate of nflati n in 2021 prnpting a =ebate overconcentration n the meatpacking indut. & However, por and hog prces have been volatile for decades, and a rush to judgment about'te cnauses of high retail cv- s should be avoided. Secn ty, r markup over who salO piri es have increased rapidly, while whoasale markups over prices paid to farmrc fr their hogs have changed little and in December 2021 were wer than in nuar and Febuar' 202----scarcely evidence of rore-externsive use of narket pow>er by pork meatprackers The gr ocery inustry is )y and, like rnany other consumer goods, retail prices er pork producs re affectd by higher transportation and labor coss, strono consumer demand, anr-ate in 202--a modest decine in the supply of frogs frc:rn the farrn. Meat prices hade been volatile for decades, and prices for pork products such as sausages, chops, and ha -----a d the prices paid to farmers for their hogs -are no exception to this general rule. Over the years, and w' thin any given year such prices go up and down. In this context, any sim ple rush to judgmrnc about why retail prices for park products surged toward the end of 2021 should be -worded at all cost. Cauton is especidly riportant with respect to ongoing' cai'ms by the Biden administration and others that the root cause of higher eat prices is the exercise of market power by the largest four meatpacking companies in the United States> There is no connpelling reason to believe tmhat argu- mnent, not 'east because, as shown in Figure , the extent to which pr processing is concent-raed among those four firms has shifted relatively little over the past 13 years (ranging be' ween 61 and ;o percent nut between 63 an-d mc percent in all but two years). Almost surely that situation has not shifted nmeasuraby during the recent rmn-np in retail prices for pork over the past eight months.

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