Beef prices set to stay

By FWi staff

BEEF prices are expected to firm over the next few weeks after a disappointing slide from a post-New Year high of almost £1/kg.

According to Jane Connor, Meat & Livestock Commission economist, the slip in values should not be cause for concern as the beef market has been experiencing an unseasonal upsurge since early January.

There have been several factors behind the rise. The blockades of processing plants in the Republic of Ireland stemmed shipments to the UK and increased domestic demand for a few weeks, says the MLC.

Added to this was the near-total removal of supplies from UK intervention stores.

This is similar in most other EU countries with only Germany holding any significant volumes originally destined for Russia under the food aid scheme.

These factors have left the UK open to imports from non-EU countries, explains Mrs Connor.

In particular, supplies from South America and Australia have begun arriving, but these are in-line with the MLCs own expectations.

“Nothing untoward is happening; remember the market has firmed against traditional trends and what we are seeing is the price coming back down to where it should be,” stresses Mrs Connor.

At many centres the beef price has been fluctuating for the past few weeks, but Mondays (Mar 6) markets showed a GB value of almost 91p/kg for steers, 90p for heifers and 93p for young bulls.

“Its a shade up on a week ago, but these should start to settle down for the next few weeks,” she adds.