PrudentSquirrel Alert – Meat prices

“We have mentioned that high grain prices (used to feed livestock) are forcing many ranchers to cut herds and feedlots to cut back – this means rising meat prices world wide.”
“Production also is dropping or failing to keep pace with demand in China, Brazil and the European Union, mostly for grain-fed beef, analysts and government data show.”
“We expect meat prices, especially beef prices, to rise this year,” said Peter Weeks, chief economist at Meat & Livestock Australia, a trade group in Sydney. “We’ve already seen big increases in beef prices in China, Russia, India and throughout Southeast Asia.”
“The beef rally risks accelerating global food inflation, which has sparked riots from Haiti to Egypt. In the U.S., food prices will jump 5.5 percent this year, the fastest pace since 1989, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
“Our demand far exceeds supplies, and our production is stagnating,” Liu Qiangde, deputy general secretary, China National Cattle Association, said in Beijing. …”