| Previous research has estimated price effects of meat packing plant closings and openings. However, none have been done for plants opening or closing during the last 20 years ago when concentration in meatpacking increased rapidly. Plant openings and closings affect industry slaughtering capacity. Many analysts contribute the lack of processing capacity to handle the large supply of hogs in 1998 a major factor why spot market hog prices plummeted to unprecedented lows. Just eight months after the capacity constraint in slaughter hogs, Maple Leaf Foods opened a hog processing plant in Brandon, Manitoba. A second but opposite event occurred in the beef industry in an area of concentrated cattle feeding and meatpacking. On Christmas day, 2000, the ConAgra fed... |
