Agri Stats: The Data Engine Behind Alleged Meat Industry Price Coordination

What does Agri Stats do?

Agri Stats sells competitive benchmarking reports to meat processors.

Companies submit internal data—including:

• production levels
• pricing and margins
• 0perating costs
• plant-level performance metrics

Agri Stats aggregates that information and distributes weekly and monthly reports comparing companies to their competitors.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, these reports can exceed hundreds of pages and often contain detailed, facility-level information about pricing and output.^{1https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-agri-stats-operating-extensive-information-exchanges-among-meat}

Why are Regulators Concerned?

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice and several states filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that Agri Stats operated anticompetitive information exchanges across the meat industry.

The complaint alleges the system covered:

• Over 90% of U.S. broiler chicken sales
• About 80% of pork sales
• About 90% of turkey sales

According to regulators, the reports allowed competitors to see each other’s pricing, margins, and production levels in near real-time.^{2https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-agri-stats-operating-extensive-information-exchanges-among-meat}