Red Meat

Beef has faced several challenges during 2023, and that pattern will continue in the new year. Erin Borror, vice president of economic analysis with the U.S. Meat Export Federation

“I see 2024 as the real rationing of demand for U.S. beef because we know production is going to decline further, and so you're looking at a domestic consumer versus our international consumers and who's going to bid more. I often hear the perception that we're producing less beef, we don't need to export as much anyway, and that couldn't be farther from the truth, especially when we need to enable higher prices across the whole supply chain to send the signal to rebuild the herd.”

 

There are some reasons for optimism in the new year…tape

Cut #4             :36                   OC…”situation normalize.”

“We could see a couple of tailwinds in 2024. Recently, after the Federal Reserve meeting in December, we're hearing a bit more from the markets about lower interest rate expectations and some hope that we could have a bit weaker dollar, at least for commodity exports. We've seen these inventory pressures for actual meat in freezers and markets starting to ease, and so I think there's some optimism there as importers have kind of adjusted. As they expect higher U.S. beef prices, I think they'll be more willing to buy because we have seen that pricing situation normalize.”

 

For more information on exports, go to usmef.org.