Why beef prices are coming down – and how it could be hurting farmers
Beef and lamb prices are dropping on supermarket shelves, as farmers are forced to start slashing record herds fearing the impact of the coming drought season.
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Beef and lamb prices are dropping on supermarket shelves, as farmers are forced to start slashing record cattle and sheep herds fearing the impact of the coming drought season.
In a boon for families struggling with increasing cost-of-living pressures, the cost of cattle has dropped by up to 72 per cent, depending on the breed, according to the Meat and Livestock Association.
It has translated into retail prices plummeting, with some cuts of meat dropping in price by as much as $4.60/kg in the year to September.
Meat and Livestock Australia market information manager Steve Bignell said the national herd was at its largest since 2014, but many farmers were reducing stock fearing drought with the approaching El Nino weather system.
“There’s a lot of supply heading to the market,” he said.
“People are selling early on the concern of drought.
“They are more aware from the last drought and don’t want to be caught holding stock.”
Mr Bignell said cattle prices had fallen by between 47 and 72 per cent, depending on the type of cattle.
Mr Bignell said research showed corned beef had dropped in price 15.3 per cent, scotch fillet was down 10 per cent, mince had fallen 5.2 per cent and a leg of lamb was down 7.3 per cent in the year, but consumers were buying more as well.
Based on current prices, it means corned beef has fallen about $3.27 to $16.80/kg, scotch fillet by $4.61 to $41.50/kg, mince by 60c to 12/kg and a leg of lamb by 95c to 12/kg.
Queensland LNP Senator Matt Canavan said the federal government should be doing more to help Australia’s struggling farmers, but that its ban on live sheep exports had made the matter worse by increasing the volume of red meat on the domestic market.
“Any price cuts we’re seeing now at the shops won’t be sustainable if we can’t have viable farmers in the long term,” Senator Canavan said.
“Some of what’s happening now is out of the government’s control, like the drought, but it’s making it worse by unnecessarily restricting what farmers can sell to willing customers. It’s having as big a detrimental impact as (Julia) Gillard’s live cattle ban a decade ago.”
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has said there was an oversupply of sheep.
“Because of the good conditions that people have had over the last couple of years – weather conditions, prices – there has been a build-up in the overall flock across the country, on both sides of the country,” he told the ABC last week.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are looking at trying to offload sheep because of a concern about a coming drought.”
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