Meat prices drop ahead of summer barbecue season, but farmers are nervous

The summer barbecue is getting a whole lot cheaper with beef and lamb prices dropping at supermarkets but the win for families means farmers are facing tough calls.

Marie Chamalot, Raphaelle Besnard, Hortense Favier, Come Malezieux and Nicholas Guillet are loving the cheap meat prices. Picture: David Swift

The summer barbecue is getting a whole lot cheaper with beef and lamb prices dropping at the supermarkets but the win for families means farmers are facing tough calls.

While grocery bills are one of our biggest hip pocket pains at the moment, an increase in quality cattle and sheep stock and cheap saleyard prices is starting to reach the supermarkets.

Farmer and butcher Craig Cook said his retail prices on some cuts of meat have fallen up to 35 per cent.

“People will eat some beautiful product and for cheaper this summer,” Mr Cook said.

“At this time of year everyone wants lamb chops for the barbecue and these have really collapsed in price … and people can expect a further reduction in price as farmers shed their stock.”

At Coles beef mince is down to $11 a kilo from $13 in March and beef rump steaks are down to $20kg from $24kg.

Teresa Gomez, Angelica Vicente, Ella White, Lyn Nukui and Jojie Brosas enjoying a picnic. Picture: Julian Andrews

Lamb is also down with leg roast at $10kg from $15kg in July, and forequarter chops are down to $16kg from $19kg in July.

French expats and mates Come Malezieux and Nicolas Guillet enjoyed some snags in the Spring sun yesterday, and said price drops are bringing a huge relief for their tight budgets.

“I eat meat nearly everyday … I have a low budget, for rich people they won’t necessarily see the difference, but I certainly will,” Mr Malezieux said.

Beef retail prices are down 5.6 per cent across all cuts in the last 12 weeks, with corned beef seeing the biggest drop at 16.3 per cent and T-bone steak declining 11.8 per cent, NielsenIQ data from Meat and Livestock Australia shows.

Lamb legs have declined 13.8 per cent in the same period, and demand for the cut has surged 42.5 per cent.

Nicholas Guillet and Come Malezieux cooking up a storm in Maroubra. Photo: David Swift

“Last year Australia produced the record amount of lamb meat ever and this year we are on track to beat it, that’s putting a downward pressure on prices,” Meat and Livestock Australia market information manager Stephen Bignell said.

Mr Bignell said saleyard prices have plummeted dramatically, from around $12 per carcass kilo in January last year to around $3.60 for young cattle.

With parts of the state already in drought and much of it classed as ‘drought affected’ by the NSW government’s drought indicators, farmers are offloading their stock as early as possible and abattoirs are full.

These factors mean NSW families are slowly starting to see an ease in their grocery bills, but for farmers already facing drought conditions, things could soon become dire.

Cattle farmers Carolyn and David Duff said the market the way it is at the moment is a good way to go broke for farmers. Nathan Edwards

Kempsey cattle farmer David Duff said five months with virtually no rain and a two-month delay at abattoirs is already forcing him to go into “shutdown mode”, and farmers are forced to decide to sell off early for no profit, or spend big on feed.

“We’ve come from returns 12 months ago that were up around $5-6 a kilo – I heard in the market report in Maitland steers and heifers under 200 kilos were returning 50c-$1.20 a kilo,” he said.

“The market the way it is now is a good way to go broke, there’s only one word that describes it and that’s stressed. The only thing that’s going to fix it is rain.”

Rumours are swirling among farmers that some are already considering euthanising cattle and sheep that won’t fetch a profit.

“It can’t go down any further, if it goes down any further the option is to euthanise, that’s an option we never want to be in,” he said.

“We aren’t at that stage yet but if it doesn’t rain by Christmas there’s going to be some serious issues both in mental health and financial and animal welfare.”