Slight increase in beef prices, with no shortage of cattle in sight

If you’ve seen an increase at the end of your grocery bill, you’re not alone.

The price of beef is up slightly according to a beef market analyst with Cattle Trends Inc.

“Nationally, May’s beef price according to Statistics Canada was about the same as what it was in May of 2020,” said Anne Wasko. “But certainly here for the first five months of 2021, we are looking at a three per cent increase.

“You’re seeing all meat prices kind of moving along, chicken prices are also up three per cent, pork prices not quite as much — but that’s kind of been the lay of the land for 2021.”

Though there’s a slight increase in the price of beef, Wasko says it’s nothing “like those crazy prices” we saw last year during June and July because of the COVID-19 shortages.

Meanwhile, the chair of the Arrell Food Institute, Simon Somogyi, says this is something they predicted in their 2020 Canada Food Price Report.

“In December, we released the Canada’s Food Price Report and we predicted a three to five per cent increase in prices for 2021,” Somogyi said. “We feel the increase will be closer to the five per cent range.

“In terms of individual product prices, since the start of 2021, chicken is up by six per cent, beef is up by eight per cent, bacon up eight per cent, and coffee up a crazy 17 per cent.”

These are not record-high prices for meat. In 2015 and 2016, beef, pork and poultry were all priced higher than now due to a protein shortage.

On average, Somogyi says it’s common for grocery bills as a whole to rise by two to four per cent. However, he expects this year to be one of the highest price increases in the history of their reports.

Beef of abundance

Wasko says there’s no shortage of beef here with Canadian cattle supply up by 14 per cent in tonnage. Meanwhile the U.S. supply is up by eight per cent.

“I think producers are kind of wishing there was gonna be a little less supply around because cattle prices still aren’t, kind of catching up to the levels that producers need for breakeven,” she said.

“We are not short of beef. This is not at all like what we saw last year during the COVID-19 challenges. There’s plenty of beef around. So I would not worry about getting your hands on beef to be grilling this summer or putting it in the freezer.”