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The impact of high beef prices on consumer demand

The senior protein analyst for Terrain says retail prices for beef still haven’t been high enough to curb demand. Don Close tells Brownfield he’s been looking at the beef complex.  “Look at the demand for prime product, the demand for the upper 2/3 choice, the demand for ground beef, it is still robust,” he says. 

But how long can it last?  Close says he’s not sure.  But he’s been watching the relationship between the Consumer Price Index and the retail price of beef. “If I start to see beef run up above the CPI, I think it’s going to be a real warning flag,” he says. “That we’ve ridden this horse as far as she’s going to go.”

He says at some point, beef prices will get high enough to slow demand. “But as of this juncture, we are not there yet,” he says 

AUDIO: Don Close, Terrain