Tightness in the cold storage supply of beef has been exacerbated by the tightening of the U.S. cattle herd.
Beef prices in the grocery store fall into the same boat, StoneX Chief Economist Arlan Suderman says that despite it all, consumer purchases are holding strong.
“We’re still seeing good support under here. Now, we need to see if the consumer will stay with us. It’s been amazing how well the consumer has stayed with us to this point, especially considering how poor the— how low some of the consumer confidence issues have been with the tariff wars that we have going on right now. So the consumer feels pretty bad, but is still spending money for beef, and we’re entering that prime BBQ season right now, and the consumer seems to still be with us.”
Suderman says that while you might think consumers would seek cheaper alternatives to beef, that just is not the case.
“Right now, I’d certainly even as high as beef prices are, I just don’t see any momentum toward the fake meat, so to speak at this point, and it seems like during COVID and some of the meat shortages we had at that point, there was a little bit of upward momentum, but a lot of people seem to be figuring out kind of what what’s in all those proudctus and how they’re put together and everything and shying back away from them once again, particularly at the cost that you have to pay for them,” he adds.
Depending on the grocery store, many meat alternatives like Beyond Meat and Impossible are priced much higher per pound than ground beef.
