This has been going on for decades at least.
During the Great Recession the lumber business went in the tank. Housing starts dropped to 480K in January of 2009.
They are currently 1.2MM. My income as a lumber broker fell by 50%.
I started poking around to sell the Federal Government lumber. They were buying it to go to Iraq and Afghanistan via Kuwait and Germany.
All the lumber was coming from European mills that had all made arrangements to get Grade Stamps from grading agency out of the USA.
What I found out was almost all the lumber was being sold to the them by two companies. One was operated under the ownership of an Asian woman who’s husband used to work for a sister company of mine. The other company was owned by a Native American woman out of SD. These were just a way to get a foot up on other trading companies. Having a Minority Woman owned company gave you a higher ranking on the scale with a US federal government Purchasing Agent.
Another consideration in awarding bids was whether they had purchased from you prior. So, once you were in with the Feds you were golden. Unfortunately, I am not a woman or a minority. My company is not under that ownership either. So, after discovering these criteria I gave up on selling the US government.
I would add to your comments that management is so poor with the fed government, it is just easier to deal with one or two contractors for their jobs.
The Government would rather deal with 10 farmers than 100 farmers, their job is easier.