CAB Reports Record Product Sales
Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) celebrates its 39th Anniversary this week with a conference here attracting 600 chefs, restaurateurs, retail meat managers, packers, processors and producers.
CAB President John Stika reported the brand’s second consecutive year with sales exceeding 1 billion pounds, and the 11th consecutive year of record sales.
“Certified Angus Beef sales were up 12% in fiscal year 2016 at 1 billion pounds," Stika said. “For 2017, sales are up another 10.3%, with sales of 1.12 billion pounds.”
Increases in sales of CAB coincide with a dramatic overall shift in high quality cattle coming to market. In 2017, for instance, as a percentage of the total U.S. fed cattle harvest, CAB accounted for 18.4%, exceeding for the first time the percentage of fed cattle grading USDA Select, which registered 18.0%.
The acceptance rate of carcasses into the CAB brand reached 29.7% in 2017.
Stika said 40.7% of CAB sales were through retail outlets, with 34.7% sold at foodservice. International sales account for 15.3% of sales, and 9.3% classified as miscellaneous.
Specifically, Stika noted that international sales of CAB skyrocketed 24.8% in 2017, totaling a record 171.5 million pounds. CAB’s top five international markets include: Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Hong Kong.
