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Port issue affects meat prices
The slowdown in cold meat shipments overseas because of West Coast port slowdowns has created a backlog that is contributing to lower domestic prices for meat. Dermot Hayes, Iowa State University Professor of Economics and Finance, says those products are not reaching their intended customers in Asia, so that creates an oversupply in the U.S. Hayes tells Brownfield Ag News, “You’re trying to get people to eat 10% more beef, 10% more chicken, and, 10% more pork at the same time. That’s a very hard thing to do using prices alone.”
Retail meat prices are lower now but, Hayes tells Brownfield, they’ll go even lower in a week or two, “I would fill up the freezer the day you hear we have a resolution to the issue. But, even when we do that, it’s going to take us two to three months just to get things back in functioning order again.”
AUDIO: Interview with Dermot Hayes (6:00 mp3):
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