SASKATOON — The United States faces a sharp decline in per capita beef consumption by consumers battered by ongoing economic woes and record retail prices.
“Demand is strictly an economic measurement based on what people will pay,” said Steve Kay, editor and publisher of Cattle Buyers Weekly.
High unemployment and energy prices, along with record protein prices, are affecting how people spend their food dollars.
Demand is expected to be flat through most of 2012 after decent gains last year, he said.
In November, the record beef price was $4.50 per pound, up 9.5 percent year-over-year. Pork was also up 5.7 percent to $3.51 per lb. Chicken was down 1.5 percent to $1.79 per lb.
Kay said prices will have to go higher because packers paid more for cattle.
“They’re beginning to regret that,” he told the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Symposium.
The $4.50 retail price reflects live cattle at $112 per hundredweight, he said, but live prices were around $122 just recently. Prices for all fresh beef would have to rise to $5 per lb. to fully reflect cattle at that price, he added.
