Leading Experts Offer Beef Demand Insights
Mike Simone, Executive Director of market Research and Intelligence with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, says high beef prices are here to stay for a while for several reasons.
“Demand has been incredibly robust,” he stated on a recent PDPW Dairy Signal webinar, sharing that the persistent drought out west, which has recovered somewhat in some places with spring and early summer rains, but has impacted the overall reductions in the beef cattle herd.
“Reductions in the cattle herd has been a key factor in that high input cost for producers across the board,” he says. “This doesn’t have a real sense of that turning around quickly and producers have been quick to rebuild the herd.”
Brandon Scholtz, President and CEO of the Wisconsin Grocers Association, shared with the PDPW audience that the pandemic impacted prices and the supply chain. And consumers reacted.
“When we were dealing with COVID, beef prices were probably the prices to first start going up,” he says, sharing that grocery stores now promote family meals and cookouts, including meat, especially during the summer months.
“There was all sorts of social media promoting family. You see grocery stores recommending what to use for tailgates and barbecuing,” he shares, adding that consumers have traded down on certain types of cuts or even potentially traded out on protein options.
Future Consumer Insights
Simone says he never worried about the supply chain issues.
“We never thought twice about it,” he says. “We put our order in the stock, and it showed up. All of a sudden there was a pandemic and everybody's talking about this. We know the workforce was productive. That was the big thing that drove everything, and it still does.”
Scholtz shares research is predicting that consumers are planning to dine out less in the coming months.
“They're looking for deals or clipping coupons or shopping sales, they're shopping multiple stores,” he explains. “We've continued to see people say they're stocking up and freezing more and raising more beef and also finding more ways to deal with leftovers.”
Simone notes that he sees a continued collaboration with the grocery stores, as they give their customers suggestions on how to use beef.
“It used to be just a couple of recipes on the website, but it has grown significantly more than that too. I think there’s a lot of really positive stuff on social media in terms of how to incorporate beef and or other proteins into your diet, events, and recipes. You see so much creative stuff out there. And again, it comes out of people's desire to try and make the most out of what they can get and how to kind of manage a price increase.”
To listen to the entire conversation of the Dairy Signal Beef Demand Insights click here:
Beef Demand Insights (mediasiteconnect.com)
