Assessing the structure of the global chicken meat market based on the concentration ratio and Herfindal index

Market structure represents the organizational characteristics of the market and with the help of these characteristics, the relationship between market components can be determined. In this study, the structure of the chicken meat market, which is one of the most important products in the food basket of households, has been studied. The scope of this research is for the years 2008 to 2017 and the production data of the top five chicken producing countries in the world, including the United States, China, India, Brazil and Russia, became the basis for determining the market structure of this product. In order to determine the structure of the chicken market in the world, two indicators of concentration ratio and Herfindal index were used. The results showed that the global chicken market has a moderate degree of concentration and the monopoly market is not complete or dominant because the value of Herfindal coefficient is less than 1000 for all years. According to the Index of Concentration, the largest firm share index (CR1), the global chicken market in all years, more than 17% of the market has been held by the United States alone. Also during this period, about 31% of the market was controlled by the United States and China, which shows the importance of these two countries in terms of production. According to the share index of the three largest firms (CR3), with the addition of Brazil's share, the value of this index has changed significantly. According to the share index of four large enterprises (CR4), this share is more than 45%, which with the addition of India, this share will reach approximately 50%. Based on the results, it can be seen that the countries of United States, China, Brazil and Russia, with an approximate 50% share of world chicken meat production, have a multi-monopoly market structure in the production of this product, which shows the determining power of these four countries in the global market.