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Will consumer demand hold as beef prices climb?

A market analyst is watching how consumer demand for beef holds as retail prices rise.

Gary Morrison with Urner Barry says supplies are tightening.

“Is that going to shoot prices up like it did the last time we came out of a tightening cycle, or is the economy going to overshadow and outweigh that and cause people to start to really trade down into other proteins?”

He tells Brownfield there have been black swan events impacting the beef market every year since a fire at the Holcomb, Kansas Tyson plant in 2019.

“But the industry has responded and I think has come out a little bit stronger. And certainly the cattle guys now are reaping some of the benefits as packers were the ones making a lot of the profit in that value chain.”

Morrison says beef prices are off about eight percent since the Fourth of July but are seeing a bit of a push around Labor Day.