Beef demand grows despite rising costs

Farmgate prices for beef cattle might be standing at a record high - currently running at 18 per cent above the five- year average figure – but input costs for finishers have soared at an even faster pace, squeezing margins.

But despite the squeeze, Quality Meat Scotland said that prices looked set to remain positive, driven by increased global demand.

The organisation’s chief economic analyst, Iain Macdonald, said that while environmental activists had been urging shoppers to eat less meat, the strong global demand – and with it, improved farmgate prices – pointed to the fact that consumers were not acting on this message, with beef remaining a highly popular protein.

He said that from a level around 70m tonnes at the beginning of this decade, forecasters had predicted that global beef consumption would surpass 74m tonnes in 2030.

And with record prices being achieved in many countries around the world, he said that the EU beef market had been particularly strong.

“Without any obvious market signals, such as a sharp fall in beef production or a large shift in its trade balance, the high prices point to firm demand being the driver, possibly as the economy reopens and people begin to eat out more often again,” said Macdonald.

Stating that both clean and cow beef had followed the upward trend, he said that it had been more challenging for traders to find cheap beef to import to Britain, with strong demand from other parts of the world often sucking in imports which could otherwise have been destined for these shores.