The price of beef on the counters could show increases of between 300 and 400 pesos per kilo in the coming days, due to an increase that is already being observed in the value of livestock for slaughter, according to various sources in the meat supply chain.
In recent days, in the market of the Cañuelas hacienda, there were some jump up to 30 percent in the price of some categories, especially for animals of good quality and finish, which is not what is abundant at the moment. On Wednesday morning, steers and heifers reached current prices of 450 pesos per kilo and ceilings of 465, while steers reached current prices of 420 pesos.
This is a rebound that everyone in the sector was already expecting, given that the price of fat farms and of meat on the counter for a year have been losing ground against inflation. Over the course of 2022, according to the Beef Promotion Institute (IPCVA), the average price of meat increased by 42% while inflation for food was 94%. For its part, standing farms have lost 40% of their real value over the past eight months. The explanation of this phenomenon given by the sector is this due to the effect of the drought, producers have had to remove the animals from their fields and an oversupply was generated. Furthermore, in the last few months of 2022, the foreign market was affected by the restrictions imposed by China due to the Covid outbreaks, so demand weakened.
The first factor is still in force, despite the rains of the weekend, the fields have little grass and the trucks of the cages continue to arrive in droves to the markets and fairs of the country. But in the second aspect important changes can be observed which may partly explain the expected treasury rebound. As analyst Ignacio Iriarte explained, after the abolition of health restrictions China is already demanding large quantities of meat again, and the rest of the international market is reacting accordingly. Prices of Hilton shares have increased 15% in the last month and are expected to reach $11,000-12,000 a ton in the near term.
Thus, the exporters, who never left, returned to the local beef market, which despite the abundance of supply is under pressure.
It will be necessary to closely follow the labels in the gondola to see if this jump in the price on the farm is transferred proportionally to the price to the public, and if the public is able to validate new prices or if the consumption of red meat falls once again, which after having touched plans of 47 kilos per year per capita in mid-2022, it was recovering.
Source: Clarin
