SIC 2011
MEAT PACKING PLANTS

This industry includes establishments primarily engaged in the slaughtering (for their own account or on a contract basis for the trade) of cattle, hogs, sheep, lambs, and calves for meat to be sold or to be used on the same premises in canning, cooking, curing, freezing, and in making sausage, lard, and other products. The industry also includes establishments primarily engaged in slaughtering horses for human consumption. Businesses primarily engaged in slaughtering, dressing, and packing poultry, rabbits, and other small game are classified in SIC 2015: Poultry Slaughtering and Processing. Those primarily engaged in slaughtering and processing animals not for human consumption are classified in SIC 2048: Prepared Feeds and Feed Ingredients for Animals and Fowls, Except Dogs and Cats. Businesses primarily involved in manufacturing sausages and meat specialties from purchased meats are classified in SIC 2013: Sausages and Other Prepared Meat Products.

NAICS Code(s)

311611 (Animal (Except Poultry) Slaughtering)

Industry Snapshot

Meat packing is one of the largest agriculture-based industries in the United States. However, in recent years changing consumer eating habits have impacted the beef and pork industries, which are by far the largest sectors in this industry category. As Americans ate less beef, the beef industry retrenched, eliminating smaller and inefficient plants, and expanding their operations to incorporate poultry products. At the same time, the pork industry was striving to reposition pork as "the meat of choice."

Although technically a "red" meat, it was gaining acceptance as an alternative to the other white meat, chicken.

In 2001 the industry shipped $60.6 billion worth of products, up 3 percent from 2000 and up 12 percent from 1998. Rapid and widespread consolidation within the industry has placed hog and beef meat packing under the control of just a handful of larger players. Operating on very thin margins, processing plants are under constant pressure to keep costs low and volume high.

Organization and Structure

The American Meat Institute (AMI) reported that there were more than 1.25 million livestock operations, raising beef cattle, hogs, and sheep destined for human consumption in the United States in the 1990s. The meat packing plants that processed these animals into food and nonfood products ranged in size from those handling small numbers of livestock to operations processing millions of animals a year. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), federally inspected slaughter and processing plants numbered 930 in 1998.

The dominance of a few major companies is demonstrated by the fact that four packers processed approximately 82 percent of the beef, and three packers processed close to 35 percent of the pork. The USDA reports that in 1998, nearly 35.5 million commercial cattle were slaughtered, representing a 2 percent decrease from 1997. Also in 1998, 101.0 million commercial hogs (an increase of 10 percent) and 3.8 million sheep and lambs (a decrease of 3 percent) were slaughtered.

According to the USDA, the U.S. meat and poultry industry is spread among all 50 states. Industry sources indicate that the Midwestern states raised about 46 percent of the cattle and over 15 percent of the hogs in the 1990s, while south central states raised more than 15 percent of the cattle and nearly 70 percent of the hogs. The top five cattle slaughtering states were Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, and Iowa. Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, and South Dakota led in the slaughter of hogs, according to the USDA. Pennsylvania, which had the largest number of federally inspected plants, representing almost 14 percent of all plants in the United States, ranked only 11th in production.

Background and Development

The colonial farmers of New England, who were the first meat packers in the United...

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