News

Red meat, poultry supplies get tighter

The USDA says red meat and poultry in cold storage at the end of October were below year ago levels. That’s due to a combination of solid demand and generally tighter market ready supplies.

The red meat total of 948.361 million pounds was down 3% on the year, with beef at 477.063 million pounds, 5% lower, and pork at 439.622 million pounds, a decrease of 2%.

Poultry came out at 1.063 billion pounds, an 18% year to year drop, with chicken falling 17% to 756.297 million pounds, and turkey dropping 19% to 303.525 million pounds. That decline for turkey including monthly record lows in several categories, including whole turkeys.

The USDA’s next set of red meat and poultry production projections is out December 9^th.