Americans are reluctant to buy high-priced beef at the grocery store, so supplies are building up in warehouses across the country despite a slowdown at packing plants. Frozen pork also is piling up, reflecting a rebound in hog herds and the impact of the strong dollar on exports.
The monthly Cold Storage report says there are 1.12 billion pounds of frozen red meat on hand, the highest total for a November in USDA records since 1916. The frozen beef total is up 27 percent from a year ago. Frozen pork is the largest for a November in a century and up 14 percent in a year. Stocks of pork bellies, which yield bacon, doubled in the past month.
“The combination of burdensome stocks and slowing demand for processing beef is expected continue to pressure domestic lean beef prices lower,” say USDA economists.
“Cattle prices are forecast to decline almost 8 percent compared with 2015, due to larger supplies of heavy cattle, high cold-storage stock levels, and sluggish foreign demand. Hog prices are expected to be 4 percent lower next year, a consequence of larger hog supplies from recent industry expansion.” The rest of the livestock industry – chicken, turkeys, eggs and milk – also would see lower prices in 2016.