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Abstract
Recent literature, largely from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service,
indicates that substantial changes have occurred in the produce industry in recent years. With
the rise of retail mass merchandisers and increased concentration in the retail food industry, the
procurement power of these large firms reportedly has also increased. With direct buying and
contracting, market intermediaries such as brokers and wholesalers allegedly are being bypassed.
As a result, these market intermediaries ostensibly are also consolidating becoming fewer and
larger with increased emphasis on servicing the food service industry. However, the findings of
this study indicate that there is no convincing evidence that the market structure of the U.S.
produce industry has markedly changed since the early 1980s. While supermarket concentration
has increased noticeably, the same cannot be said for produce market intermediaries such as
brokers and wholesalers.