Exhibit 608

Concentration and Competition in U.S. Agribusiness (Economic Information Bulletin 256)

Exhibit 608 · Agency research report

Concentration and Competition in U.S. Agribusiness (Economic Information Bulletin 256)

In 2019, the four largest meatpackers accounted for 85 percent of steer and heifer slaughter and 67 percent of hog slaughter.

Reviewed by ERS technical peers before release. Table 6 (p. 25) gives four-firm concentration ratios (CR4) from Packers and Stockyards Program reports: steers and heifers 36 (1980), 81 (1995), 85 (2010), 85 (2019); hogs 34, 46, 65, 67; broilers 50 (1995), 51, 53; turkeys 41 (1995), 56, 55. Table 1 (p. 11) gives seed shares. Pp. 19-23 describe the Dow-DuPont, ChemChina-Syngenta and Bayer-Monsanto reviews and the divestitures. P. 15 reports seed prices up 270 percent from 1990 to 2020 against 56 percent for commodities and says the evidence is mixed on whether concentration caused the rise. P. 32 reports the farm-to-wholesale beef spread doubled between 2015 and 2019. P. 36 concludes that concentration came mostly from larger plants rather than mergers, that pre-2010 studies found limited packer market power, and that post-2010 spreads suggest more market power. Pp. 34-35 summarize the DOJ chicken cases, including that "individual defendants were acquitted in jury trials."

Source: USDA Economic Research Service (MacDonald, Dong and Fuglie)
Date: June 2023
Quoted from: Summary page, "What Did the Study Find?", first bullet
Grade: Primary record
Document: https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/106795/eib-256.pdf
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding AGR-5.1: Primary record USDA data show that the four largest packers' share of steer and heifer slaughter rose from 36 percent in 1980 to 85 percent in 2019, and their share of hog slaughter rose from 34 percent to 67 percent. In 2019 the four largest firms held 53 percent of broiler chicken and 55 percent of turkey production.
Finding AGR-5.2: Primary record USDA's Economic Research Service attributes the rise in beef and pork packing concentration mostly to larger plants and says mergers played a limited role. ERS also reports that the farm-to-wholesale beef price spread doubled between 2015 and 2019. GAO estimated that fed cattle prices in 2013 to 2015 may have been about 9 percent higher in areas with less packer concentration than in areas with more, and stated that this evidence alone does not imply anticompetitive or improper behavior.
Finding AGR-5.4: Primary record Pilgrim's Pride pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products and was sentenced to a criminal fine of $107,923,572 on February 23, 2021. ERS reports that individual defendants in the DOJ broiler cases were acquitted in jury trials. Tyson's filing states that the first civil broiler antitrust jury trial ended in a verdict for the defendants.
Finding AGR-5.10: Primary record Two seed companies accounted for 72 percent of planted U.S. corn acres and 66 percent of soybean acres in 2018-20. USDA's 2023 seed competition report counts Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina and BASF as owning 95 percent of corn, 84 percent of soybean and 74 percent of cotton plant intellectual property.
Finding AGR-5.11: Primary record In 2017 and 2018 antitrust agencies cleared ChemChina-Syngenta, Dow-DuPont and Bayer-Monsanto only with divestitures. DOJ called the roughly $9 billion Bayer divestiture to BASF the largest merger divestiture ever required by the United States.
Finding AGR-5.13: Primary record The average price farmers paid for seed rose 270 percent from 1990 to 2020, against 56 percent for commodity prices and 463 percent for crops grown mostly with genetically modified traits. ERS states that the evidence is mixed on whether concentration caused the rise.