April 3, 2014

In the past few weeks, the Canadian beef market has seen significant price increases, which Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) says is not surprising, following the recent movements in the US.

Despite the increase in Canadian cattle slaughter since the US implementation of mandatory Country of Origin Labelling (COOL), the increases have occurred across both domestic and imported beef.

Canadian fed steer and heifer prices have been recording on-year increases each month since April 2013 across the country, with noticeable spikes since the beginning of 2014. Cow prices have been less consistently higher, but have been generally trending upward since the beginning of 2013.

At the beginning of this year, the estimated total cattle inventory was 12.325 million head, the highest since 2010, although declines were registered in both beef and dairy cow numbers, and calf inventories.

Imported beef stocks in Canada, as of January 1, 2014, were sitting at 4,292 tonnes - down a very large 37% compared to the previous year.

This was the lowest total since at least 2006 (as reported in the Steiner Consulting Group's monthly Canada Meat Market Report) and reflects the high prices being paid for imported beef at present.