We've commented on the growing price differential between cattle futures and retail prices, more after the jumps.
From Reuters, November 7:
- Trump accuses meatpackers of price manipulation and collusion
- DOJ probes meatpackers, focusing on anticompetitive conduct
- Consumers worry about affordability
President Donald Trump on Friday accused meatpacking companies of driving up U.S. beef prices, which have hit records, through manipulation and collusion, and ordered the Justice Department to investigate.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an X post the probe was under way and being run by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater. Slater leads the Justice Department's antitrust division, which investigates price-fixing and other practices that stifle competition.
No targets of the probe were identified. Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS USA and National Beef Packing Company slaughter about 85% of U.S. grain-fattened cattle that become steaks, beef roasts and other cuts of meat in supermarkets.
In a post on Truth Social, the president said he directed the Justice Department to launch "an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation."The move comes as Americans are focused on pocketbook worries, like food prices that have outpaced inflation. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in late October found that 40% of respondents said cost-of-living was the most important election issue.
The Department of Justice is also probing whether egg producers conspired to inflate the price of eggs.
Beef prices set records in 2025 after a years-long drought burned up pasture lands and hiked costs of cattle feed, forcing ranchers to slash the nation's herd to the smallest level in nearly 75 years. Consumer demand has remained generally strong despite high prices.
A pound of ground chuck beef cost retail consumers about $6.33 in September, up 13.5% from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Ranchers have long complained about consolidation in the packing industry. Cargill declined to comment. Spokespeople for the other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"We need transparency, accountability, and a fair market that rewards those who actually raise and produce our beef — not the corporate middlemen gaming the system," Rollins said in a post on X....
Previously:
November 7 - U.N. FAO Food Price Index: "eased further in October, with all indices but vegetable oils down"
The index looks to be ready to give up all the increases over the last twelve months.
Related in the USA, the cattle are lowing (see what I did there?):
October 27 - Beef Prices Are Falling
Although not yet apparent at retail, the declines are in the pipeline:
TradingView - Live Cattle, 6 months
TradingView - Feeder Cattle, 6 months
It might have something to do with Argentine gauchos sending their best northward as the U.S. cattle barons restock their herds.
The downward trend has continued over the last ten days.
And in other protein news, October 23 - What Happened To All The Egg Price Clucking And Squawking?
