April 30, 2007

Lacklustre trading for US lean beef

The US imported market for lean manufacturing beef remains quiet as mist traders continues to wait on the sidelines on the spot market. Offerings from Australia are reportedly firm, but US end users continue to refuse the prices on offer.

While the strong A$ is underpinning these firm offer prices, importers are refusing to increase their bids due to weaker domestic manufacturing beef prices caused by high US cow beef supplies.

Imported prices (in US$ terms) for the products that did trade this week were similar to last week's levels and prices remain stronger than a year ago. However, in A$ terms, imported 90CL cow beef prices are around 7.5 percent weaker than a year ago.