The U.S. Department of Justice announced via X today that it is expanding its ongoing investigation into beef affordability to include eight of the nation’s largest grocery retailers, including Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Albertsons, Aldi, Ahold Delhaize USA, Costco and Amazon. The investigation has thus far focused on the nation’s four largest meatpackers.
R-CALF USA has long raised concerns about the widening spread between cattle and beef prices and the market power held by highly concentrated beef packers and retailers. In May, the organization called for greater scrutiny of the retail sector, including an investigation into widening retail beef margins to determine whether rising retail beef prices were attributable to legitimate inflationary costs or the improper exercise of market power.
R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard released the following statement in response to the announcement:
“We are encouraged that the Department of Justice is expanding the scope of its beef affordability investigation to include the retail sector. There has long been a disconnect between cattle prices and beef prices that raises serious questions about whether market power is contributing disproportionately to consumer beef prices.
“America’s independent cattle producers are widely dispersed, decentralized price takers who do not control the price consumers pay for beef at the grocery store. Meanwhile, both the meatpacking and retail sectors are highly concentrated and possess significant market power.
“Before policymakers take actions intended to lower cattle prices under the assumption that doing so will lower prices at the meat counter, they must determine how much of today’s retail beef price is attributable to legitimate costs and competitive market forces, and how much may be attributable to the exercise of market power or anticompetitive practices.
“We urge the Department of Justice to thoroughly investigate both the meatpacking and retail sectors and to take meaningful enforcement action wherever anticompetitive conduct is found.”
