Its meat processors having a monopoly.

I realize saying RTFA is against the rules, but this exact point (meat processors profiting off the price hikes) is specifically discussed, and refuted, in the article:

> Four companies - Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef - control around 85% of American beef processing.

> That high level of market concentration has drawn accusations of price-fixing, even from President Trump.

> So you might expect that those four firms are currently making huge profits from high beef prices. Yet the opposite is happening.

> Tyson, the biggest of the four, reported in May that it had lost more than $500m on beef in the first half of its financial year.

monopsony