May 8, 2007

 

US weekend beef sales rise regionally

 

 

Beef movement from US retail grocers appears to have risen this past weekend from previous weekends overall, but the action was cut short in some parts of the country.

 

Bruce Longo, market analyst at Urner Barry's Yellow Sheet, said it was "vastly improved" from April weekends. He credited the improvement to a higher number of advertised specials where the product was featured on the front pages of newspaper supplements and to milder weather in key parts of the country.

 

Warm, clear conditions over most of the north-eastern US prompted more consumers to get out in the backyard and fire up the grill, Longo and others said. This high-consumption area accounted for many of the reports of better retail sales.

 

However, other parts of the US had poor weather conditions that prevented grilling on a widespread basis, Longo and other traders said. Rain and chillier temperatures got in the way of what could have been an active grilling weekend.

 

One trader even said the weekend movement in his area was only average.

 

The USDA's choice boxed beef cutout price for Friday was 155.33 per hundredweight, compared with 157.76 a week earlier and 162.58 on April 20.

 

Going forward, orders to the packers for quick-shipping product indicate some fill-in buying is going on, although the action faded by early afternoon.

 

End cuts appear to be working higher, Longo said, and US Department of Agriculture estimates show packers may be cutting back on slaughter rates to control cooler inventories and to support product prices.

 

Market analysts calculate that packers are either breaking even or losing money on each head slaughtered, so the response to prune production seemed to be a reasonable move to these analysts.