Retail beef price up 15%, pork up 12% since last summer | Food and Environment Reporting Network

Beef prices are up 15 percent from a year ago and pork prices are up nearly 12 percent due to short supplies, said the Agriculture Department in a look at food inflation. Some relief is expected in the remaining months of the year, so USDA forecasts the average beef price this year to be 9 percent higher than last year. Pork would be 8 percent higher. Hog farmers are feeding their animals to heavier weights to offset piglets lost to disease. Drought is easing in West but “there are not yet any signs of herd expansion,” said USDA.

Beef prices climbed by 4.2 percent during August, the largest one-month increase since the end of 2003, said USDA. “Most retail beef prices, on average, are at record highs, even after adjusting for inflation,” it said. Pork prices were up 2.1 percent for the month. Overall, USDA is sticking to its forecast of a 3 percent rise in food prices this year, compared to the 20-year average of 2.6 percent a year, and a slightly lower than average rise of 2.5 percent in 2015.

In a separate report, USDA said beef and pork production during August was 10 percent smaller than August 2013. For January-August, beef output was down 4 percent from the same period a year earlier and pork was down 2 percent, said the Livestock Slaughter report.