It has become common practice to turn to the rhetoric of Trump’s treatment to teach that Democrats and illegal immigrants are the source of all our problems. Higher beef prices? Look.
Here, for example, is Treasury Secretary Scott Besslent explaining to Fox News on Sunday why beef prices are rising:
He said: “This is a good storm,” something we have inherited. ” (That blames the Democrat part.)
The beef section remains our only soft spot.
– Tyson Donnie Donnie’s food executive
“And,” he continued, “because of the migration of many people, the disease that we will take out of North America was going to South America like these immigrants, they brought some of their problem.”
As the case is sometimes deceptive, there is a small nugget of truth in his words, surrounded by a body of misrepresentation.
Nugget fact is that the US Department of Agriculture closed the border to Mexican cattle in March, to prevent the US spread of the new world screwworm, the worst disease of domestic cattle.
But the ancient image of migrants smuggling their infected bees across the border is an obvious one. The USDA’s announcement of the blockade did not limit the risk of screwworm to land supply, illegal or otherwise, but to commercial imports. The organization also pointed out that the abuse had not spread far from Oaxaca and Veracruz, 700 kilometers from the US border.
Spiel Presic and the Secretary of the Treasury can be seen very well as a general opposition to Trumpion.
That’s because at least some of the run-up in beef prices in the store can be blamed on Trump’s policies, including his tariffs on the US.
Trump’s budget cuts have also contributed to the crisis. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Gollins in June announced a “five-pronged plan” to fight the parasite south of the border. What he could say is that in March, the Trump administration decided to fund efforts to fight the screwworm used by the UN food and agriculture organization as part of its creation of the US agency for the US agency for international development.
That said, much more is driving beef inflation than taxes and the screwworm. And an examination of all the root causes shows that things are likely to get worse at the meat counter before they get better. A recovery in beef prices, according to agricultural experts, could take years.
The root of the beef price problem: the size of the US beef herd started in 1975 and is now lower than it has been since 1951.
(USDA)
Before going any further, let’s look at the raw values. It won’t be news to most consumers that beef prices have been on the rise for quite some time. The average price of raw beef steer reached a record $12.26 per pound in September, up 15.2% from just before Trump took office.
That’s the tail end of a long trend, though: the price was $3.64 in January 1998, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, meaning STUREBECH
In recent months, the big food companies have felt more than a lot. Donnie King, CEO of Tyson Foods, which owns Tyson’s beef and sausage farms such as Hillshire Farms, told investors on the fourth earnings call, “That beef segment remains our soft spot.”
The company reported an operating loss prepared for $ 426 million in FICAL 2025 and a loss of $ 600 million was found in the financial year segment, according to the cost of cattle, the cost increased more than any other entry. It means that the income he received is protected by the benefits of the chicken, which attracted the buyers of BHOVENING BEEF. In total, in the financial year that ended on September 27, Thon reported a profit of $ 507 million on a revenue of $ 54.4 billion.
That brings us to the real factors driving higher prices. To a large extent, they were added. Another long-term grudge is the size of the US cattle herd, which has fallen to 87.2 head of cattle, the lowest level since 1922.
Hay prices are projected to increase by nearly 45% by 2022. With feed costs eating up the value of their herds, the organs of sight – which produce a short lump of their cattle like store shelves but include in the one available tomorrow.
Raising an animal from a calf with a legitimate cow takes at least three years. Tyson executives told investors that they have seen signs that ranchers are finally waking up their herds, but that means continued meat shortages in the coming years.
In this uncertain environment, Trump threw another problem: tariffs. This includes a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports from Brazil, which Trump imposed as a protectionist measure, but because he was not enough with the prosecution of the former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for alleged conspiracy. (Bolsonaro was convicted and sentenced in September to more than 27 years in prison.)
That was a problem because, although foreign meat does not account for a large part of the consumption of beef, it is important in other categories, “which are combined with Fattier US BEEMET Brazil’s production of Lean Trim helped exports of its beef reach more than 25% of all US beef products.
The long-term rise in beef prices has left market participants wanting to point the finger, not all of it unfounded. In 2019, consumer advocates accused Tyson, Cargill and other meatpackers of conspiring to fix beef prices. Tyson and Cargill settled the allegations last month not admitting that they are guilty, paying $ 55 million and Cargill, $ 33.5 million. Two foreign-owned companies, JBS USA and National Meatpacking, are in court.
Others have shown that they are prophets of cattle ranchers, his profit per animal is very high, as many have combined the size of their herds.
One can also point to American consumers, who did not spend their beef buying enough to take over from the economic crisis.
The management of beef price hikes has been chaotic and unpopular. Last month, Trump said he would reduce the price spike by importing more beef from Argentina.
A suggested sandlash proposal that is close to American cattle producers. They said the plan “only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower store prices,” in the words of Colin Kalall, national beef manager of cattlemen. The group noted that Argentine beef accounts for 2% of US beef, meaning that even a significant expansion of trade flows would lower prices.
Price, there is little trump can do to influence beef prices, without making the situation worse, as is the case with his taxes. Now that he has reversed course and given Brazil the thumbs up to trade, prices may improve, if modestly. But all those other factors like drought, long-term declines in herds and disease, will be with us, for a while.
