Beef prices are going up

By Special to MoneySense on June 9, 2015
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The cost of your hamburgers has risen 40% over the past three years

beef prices — (Diana Miller/Getty Images)

Shocked by what the local grocer is charging for your favourite steak or ground beef for the grill?

You’re not alone. Industry experts have warned a cattle shortage would send prices through the roof this year.

“Thinking of barbecue, it’s very top of mind right now,” says Sylvain Charlebois, a professor with the University of Guelph’s Food Institute.

He says retail beef prices have risen about 40% over the past three years and the trend has continued to build each month from January through April, according to the most recent food prices compiled by Statistics Canada.

“So there’s still momentum upward. I don’t think we’ve actually reached our peak yet.”

That view is shared by Kevin Grier. The independent food industry analyst in Guelph, Ont., says the North American cattle herd has been on the decline for about 15 years but 2014 and 2015 has been “kind of a tipping point.”

Grier says he’s been recently swamped by calls about beef prices, which he monitors as well as pork and chicken prices.

Grocery flyers were advertising popular cuts of steak at $4.99 a pound (about $11 a kilogram) as recently as two years ago, Grier says, but that was before prices went up.

“Now you’re seeing $7.99, $8.99, $9.99. And that’s the specials.”

Charlebois says as shocking as it has been for Canadian beef lovers to see prices rise, it’s a phenomenon being experienced around the Western world.

“Let’s look at the United States, for example. Since 2009, beef prices have almost doubled. So the increase in the United States has actually been higher than it has been in Canada,” Charlebois says.

“Herds in the United States are much more depressed than in Canada, so that’s why prices have gone up significantly. In Europe, it’s even worse.”

The European Union ended dairy quotas in April, causing increased uncertainty for farmers, he says.

“So a lot of farmers are exiting the industry — both in dairy and in cattle. So there’s less and less inventory in Europe. Supplies are much lower, so prices have gone up.”