What's the price of meat? Sources of variation in retail meat price data and impacts on market performance analysis

Abstract

Retail meat price data, an essential element of market analysis, can differ substantially across data sources. Volume-weighted retail meat prices calculated using scanner data are lower than Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) prices. Generally, the difference between BLS prices and scanner-based prices increases as the volume sold increases and as the concentration of retail sales decreases. We explore the impacts of alternative data sources on meat price spreads and the farmers' share of the retail meat dollar. When estimated using scanner-based versus BLS prices, farmers receive, on average, 9.0 and 3.1 percentage points more of retail beef and pork dollars, respectively.