Retail Mergers and Acquisitions, and Specialty Crop Producers: Evidence from California

Richard Volpe, Maiah Alman, Xiaowei Cai and Alexander Stevens
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Richard Volpe: Agribusiness Department, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA
Maiah Alman: Ecomedes, San Francisco, CA 94122, USA
Xiaowei Cai: Agribusiness Department, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA
Alexander Stevens: USDA Economic Research Service, Washington, DC 20024, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Relatively little is known about the economic impact of mergers and acquisitions in the food retail industry on upstream agricultural producers. We study the potential impact of the 2014 merger between Safeway and Albertsons on California specialty crop growers. There is a consensus among the 19 growers that we interviewed that merger events are unfavorable since they lead to uncertainty, lower prices, lost revenue, and higher transaction costs. State-level analysis of USDA crop price data provides support for these contentions.

Keywords: mergers and acquisitions; food retail; agricultural production; bargaining power; food prices; economic impacts; merger analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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