According to super_canadian, the price of steaks in Canada has risen!
Last year, some netizens complained that Costco steak 2 pieces cost $63, how much money must be charged in the restaurant!
The reality is that in just 5 years from 2016 to 2021, the wholesale price of beef has exploded 10 times! However, the money did not go into the farmer's pocket.
According to statistics Canada, the average price of beef has risen by 6% from the price of one kilogram of ground beef since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, while steaks have been more exaggerated, with prices up 24%, according to CBC.
A new study commissioned by Ontario beef farmers shows that cattle farmers don't necessarily profit from the high prices of beef at the butcher's counter.
Although customers are intimidated by the price of steaks in supermarkets or restaurants, farmers do not profit accordingly. Like BB Cattle Co. on the outskirts of Luken, Ontario The farmer Belinda Bowman, these people, they feel very confused! Because the share of price increases disappears between the farm and the plate.
She said, "If you look at it, I wouldn't say that the price of wholesale slaughterhouses has increased by 25 percent." She also noted that the price of corn for raising cattle has skyrocketed, 40 percent more expensive than last year.
"Like everything now, our costs have gone up."
The gap between farms and plates is getting bigger and bigger
According to the study, there is a growing gap between the price of cattle paid by slaughterhouses for farmers like Bowman and the price paid by retailers such as supermarkets or butchers for wholesale beef.
Studies have shown that between 2016 and 2021, cattle prices remained relatively flat, rising only 2.8 percent, while wholesale beef prices rose 27 percent over the same period, up nearly 10 times.
Kevin. Greer is the author of the study. For decades, the Guelph, Ont., economist has been analyzing the relationship between livestock and meat prices.
"Historically, beef prices and cattle prices have been on the same footing, one up and the other up, but in the last few years this relationship has been broken."
This segment means that farmers' share of profits in Ontario's $2.7 billion beef industry is declining, while demand for beef is at its highest level in 30 years.
Farmers and supermarkets lost profits to meat packers
According to the study, farmers' share of profits fell from 41 percent in 2016 to 39 percent in 2021. At the same time, the share of meat packers rose from 51% to 59%.
Studies have shown that cattle prices have remained relatively flat, growing by only 2.8% between 2016 and 2021. Over the same period, wholesale beef prices rose 27 percent, up nearly 10 times.
According to the study, supermarkets and butchers are in the worst situation, with profit margins of 8 percent in 2016 and just over 2 percent by 2021.
"Supermarkets' share of beef profits has actually gone down," Greer said. "Believe it or not, supermarkets don't like price increases because it annoys people."
"My estimate of [profit margins] for process packers is staggering."
The CBC contacted the Canadian Meat Council, the national trade association for meat packers. But the group had not responded as of press time.