Are meat monopolies necessarily responsible for recent spikes in meat prices?

Disruptions to meatpacking supply chains can cause price spikes regardless of whether a handful of companies control the market. Although the meat industry is highly concentrated, the level of concentration as measured by the four-firm concentration ratio has remained stable since the 1990s, with a modest increase around 2009.

This suggests that recent price inflation is not due to changes in market power. Early in the pandemic, meat price increases were caused by disruptions in supply when packing plants shuttered after workers contracted COVID-19. Packing has fully resumed, but there remain extra costs from socially distanced workers and the addition of personal protective equipment. Livestock and feed prices have also substantially increased due to high energy prices and adverse weather around the world, alongside strong domestic and foreign consumer demand for U.S. meat.