Looks like we might be priced out of the party
- Scott Daniels: We Ate Well and Cheaply
- June 24, 2021
- 767
I’m standing in front of the grocery store meat case and can hardly believe what I’m seeing. Beef tenderloin steaks are never cheap, but the price, normally $20-25, or around $17-18 per pound during a good sale, were at $38 and change per pound. Other cuts of beef were offered at similar prices.
As we’re getting close to the July 4 holiday when many of us are planning to spend time outdoors grilling steaks, ribs and burgers, it looks like we will be priced out of the party.
I wondered what was going on, and did a little digging. The reason for the price hike in the meat case is not what you might assume. There are plenty of herds of beef and pork in the USA and the supply is not the problem. The reason for skyrocketing beef and pork prices has to do with the pandemic and exports.
While we were all in lockdown and restaurants were closed, the foodservice industry all but dropped out of the market for most of the goods served in restaurants. Ketchup is a good example of this—there is a shortage of ketchup in the little packets in restaurants, because the ketchup producing industry was forced to turn its attention to providing product in bottles for retail in grocery stores while we all stayed home. The ketchup packet shortage should sort itself out pretty quickly. Beef, not so much.
U.S. Beef herds are at 120% of production compared to pre 2020 levels. But the shortage is now in part due to stiff competition between retail sales in grocery stores and meat markets and sales to restaurants, resorts, hotels and cruise ships. The extreme demand from both is serving to keep prices at a level favorable to sellers.
The price of beef might make you a little miffed, but imagine the cattle ranchers, who are seeing virtually no rise in the price they’re getting for their herds. Meat packing in the U.S. is controlled by a very few companies, who tend to keep prices where they want, while selling the product at market prices favorable to them.
I can’t stress enough how much local producers appreciate selling directly to consumers when possible. Farmers markets are opening in our area, and let me get in a little plug for Fresh The Market in New Philadelphia, where I’ve found a good selection of meats, cheeses, eggs and produce from farms in our own backyard.
And then we get to point our finger at China. That China pointing finger must surely be getting tired and the Chinese are probably anxious for us to find a new boogeyman, but here we are.
We are exporting large amounts of meat products overseas, with much of it to China, further spiking demand, and from my reading, this combination of events is likely to continue for at least much of this year. Poultry isn’t excluded from all this, with some sources quoting prices expected to increase by some 15% in the coming months.
It’s enough to make you take up fishing, which is not a bad idea at all. I complain to the chef often at my house that we just aren’t eating enough seafood to gain the health benefits associated with consuming fish a couple of times a week. I’m lucky to have fish once a month. Not everyone likes fish, and I am the only one at my house who does.
That brings us back to the upcoming Fourth of July. Maybe we don’t get a bundle of strip steaks for the party this year, but instead do a clam bake or burgers. You can go to all vegetables, which are tremendously delicious when you free yourself of the notion of plain boiling or steaming.
We’ll have to find ways to get around the skyrocketing meat prices we’re seeing this summer, because they promise to be with us until the snow flies, at least.