July 26, 2010

US beef market stable amid slow economy

 
The lean manufacturing beef market in the US last week remained relatively steady across imported and US domestic product, amid a cautious buying environment due to much market uncertainty.

Both the importer 90CL indicator and the US domestic fresh 90CL indicator remained relatively unchanged on previous week, at 155.5US¢/lb (CIF) and 166.5US¢/lb, respectively.

While there were expectations for the US economy to start its slow recovery, recent US unemployment rate in June was at 9.5% - unchanged on June last year. Alongside this, the US GDP growth for the first quarter of this year was revised down from 3.2% to 2.7%, with calendar year figures now down to a range of 3% to 3.5%.

The sluggish economic growth in the US and high employment looks likely to continue to limit beef demand at both retail and foodservice for the rest of this year.