Advantage: BEEF

摘要

Americans' ongoing love affair with beef is driving a beef boom that is almost unprecedented in the modern history of the US meat and poultry industry. Beef has been the so-called King of the retail meat case for most of the last 50 years. But strong beef sales at the grocery store even before the COVID-19 pandemic began to upend food purchasing patterns have cemented beef's position as the undisputed meat case leader. March retail prices showed that consumers remain unfazed about higher beef prices. The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) retail Choice beef price averaged $6.48 per lb, up 7c from February and up 7.1% from March last year. Its All Fresh retail beef price averaged $6.39 per lb, up 9c and 7.2%, respectively. March is likely to be the last month to make valid meat price comparisons with a year ago, as April prices rose sharply and then skyrocketed in May. This was because of the dramatic reduction in red meat production caused by the large number of COVID-19 cases, illnesses and absenteeism among meat plant workers.