President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate major US meatpackers, seeking to discover whether they are not systematically and secretly raising beef prices, through collusion that may imply Illegal manipulation of market values.
Beef prices in the United States are at Highest values in historyA pound of meat (0.4 kg) costs US$5.79 per unit, while products from selected calves weighing 400 kg or more are worth US$10.98 per unit in large restaurants.
The white house It targeted 4 major companies – JBS, Cargill, Tyson Foods, and National Beef – which work together They control 85% of the market Beef processing, which includes packaging, is mandatory.
There are also structural reasons for these record prices; The first, above all, is that The livestock population is at its lowest level in the past 70 yearsBecause the chronic drought experienced by the states of the American West and Southwest, such as Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico, has led to the reduction of all herds without exception, with the disappearance of natural prairies; All of this was accompanied by a general rise in the prices of animal feed inputs, which led to the collapse of the large “feed” business.
Livestock insurance costs have also risen, as have the wages of rural workers; And the result was A sharp decline in the number of livestock.
That’s why consumers are turning to lower-quality meat and alternative meats, especially poultry, whose prices have risen 8.2% over the past six months and whose consumption has nearly tripled.
So The costs of large refrigerators have risen More than $200 million in the last 12 months; This was not offset by the increase in poultry meat sales; Hence the accusation of collusion between these four major players in the beef processing business.
The reason why farm owners sell all their potential products is the most basic and common reason in the markets; These prices are exceptional, and It allows producers to obtain significant and immediate liquidity to make new investments Outside the livestock sector, but within the agri-food sector.
Meat production is a medium-long business, and it takes at least 42 months for a cow to be raised into steak. This means that an animal sold in November will not be ready for processing until September/October 2028; And in the meantime The livestock shortage will worsen and the price will rise increasingly.
The rule in capitalism is that raising prices encourages supply, but in the livestock trade this formula is implemented along the lines of the law of gravity mediated by the parameters of biology, especially with regard to the temporality of the product.
Trump insisted that Quota 80,000 tons The beef donated to Argentina is part of the trade agreement between the two countries which will be announced within the next 10 days.
This implies that it wants to remove any contingent nature from its preference for its main Latin American ally, and place this perceived advantage within the framework of a mandatory international trade agreement.
Explains briefly “Cattle ranchers” in Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico raged against Argentine production.
The matter can be summarized as follows: Beef prices in the United States have reached record levels, and will remain so for a long time, while… Argentine meat, the best in the world, has market rules in its favourThe first thing that is noticed is that there is a deficit of more than 2 million tons in meat production in North America, which forces it to be imported. This, in addition to the support of Donald Trump, is the decisive card for the dominance of Argentine meat in the largest consumer market in the world.
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