Recently, the price of beef has "plunged", and a pound of good beef tendon meat usually costs 100 yuan, but now it only costs a few dozen yuan to get it.
According to monitoring data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the average price of beef in national bazaars was 76.36 yuan per kilogram in April, down 5% from 80.41 yuan per kilogram in January. At present, the average price of beef in the country is 65.12 yuan/kg, which is generally down by more than 10% compared with the "May Day" holiday, and the decline is 6~7 yuan/kg.
According to the latest monitoring of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, as of 14 o'clock on May 31, the average price of beef in the national agricultural products wholesale market was 61.81 yuan/kg.
The beef that used to be high on the top is now showing a "people-friendly attitude", why does the price of beef fall?
Merchant: I've never seen such a big price cut
On the afternoon of May 27, the reporter came to a beef shop located in the Baliqiao Vegetable Wholesale Market in Huaiyin District, Jinan, and the store operator Mi Mingxin told reporters that the price of beef has been reduced for a period of time, "The cheapest beef in our store is 29.9 yuan per catty, and the price is 38 yuan per catty before the price is reduced." ”
Mr. Mi, 41, who has been involved with his parents since he was a teenager, said he had never seen such a price cut for beef as recently, "There have been price cuts in previous years, but not as long and as large as this year." ”
The owner of another beef and mutton shop in the market told reporters that the price of the beef they sell has also seen a "big dive", "It used to sell for 36 to 37 yuan per catty, but now the price per catty is 28 yuan, regardless of the part." ”
In the Dikou Road Ethnic Food Street in Tianqiao District, stores selling beef abound. An aunt who lives in Huaiyin District told reporters that she specially rode her bicycle here to buy beef, "I heard that the price of beef in the market here has been reduced, so I came here to buy it." ”
So how cheap is beef in this market? The reporter visited several stores and found that the price of beef in several stores was about the same, the price of beef tenderloin, beef tendon, beef brisket and other parts was 28 yuan per catty, and the previous price was 33 yuan per catty, a store owner told reporters, "The price has been reduced for more than a month, and many people have called to book beef in advance, and the sales volume has doubled before." ”
Regarding the statement that "beef has dropped to pork price", the reporter compared a number of fresh stores selling pork during the visit, and the price of pork in the rib part is basically about 28 yuan per catty, which is basically the same as the price of special beef in the above two beef stores.
A large supermarket in Lixia District is promoting beef, picture source: Poster News
According to media reports, Mr. Liang, the owner of a beef and mutton stall in Hangzhou, told reporters that the price of fresh beef has been reduced since the Spring Festival this year, and the overall price has been down in the past six months. "Compared with the same period last year, the price of fresh beef has fallen by about 10 yuan per catty."
Boss Liang pointed to the high-quality beef on the stall and said, like "hanging dragon meat", it used to sell for 60 or 70 yuan per catty, but now it only sells for more than 50 yuan; The "money tendon" used to be more than 70 yuan per catty, but now it is only 60 yuan. "This year, steak prices are not as expensive as pork chops."
Next door to Boss Liang, Boss Zhang is also a stall owner selling grassland beef, and he has been doing this business for more than ten years. "In previous years, there hasn't been as much of a drop as this year," he said.
Beef prices are diving, where are cattle farmers going?
"Our family has more than 20 cows, and last year we sold some cattle in order to repay the loan, and we happened to encounter the price of beef and lost more than 100,000 yuan. Now he still owes more than 200,000 yuan in the loan to buy cattle and has not repaid. Ms. Xiao, who opened a beef and mutton shop in Licheng District, Jinan, was a little helpless, she began to open a beef and mutton shop in Jinan last year, and wanted to make some money by taking advantage of raising cattle in her hometown in Binzhou, but she did not expect to encounter a "big dive" in beef prices not long after it opened.
Ms. Xiao recalled that she began to open the store in October last year, and the price of beef began to "slide" after the year, and the price of beef has fallen most rapidly in the past month, "I sell my own grass-fed yellow beef, which tastes very good, and the beef tendon is sold to 38 yuan/jin during the New Year, and now the pure dry calf tendon is only sold at 33 yuan/jin." ”
Ms. Xiao said that there are many farmers in her hometown of Yangxin, Binzhou, and this "price war" not only has an impact on her business, but also affects those farmers, and many people in the village have sold their cattle to work in other places, "After the imported beef hit the domestic market, they are fighting a 'price war', there are too many low-priced beef in the market, and if you want to sell the cattle, you can only sell them at a low price. ”
The person in charge of a medium-sized beef cattle farm in Shandong told reporters that the current price of live cattle is about 11 yuan per catty, which is far from covering the cost of breeding. Anyway, if it is more than 11 yuan per catty now, a cow will have to pay more than 2,000 yuan. ”
Changes in the supply side, causing prices to fall
According to reports, Ren Lingfei, the manager of the beef and mutton shop in the meat market of China Nonggang City, said that the average wholesale price of beef in China Nonggang City is 30 yuan per catty and mutton is 25 yuan per catty, which can be said to be a "big dive". Pig prices continued to run at a low level and ran smoothly, keeping around 13 yuan and 14 yuan per catty.
"Since the Chinese New Year, beef prices have been on a downward trend. Especially in the past two months, the price has fallen more significantly, close to the price of mutton. As for the reason for the decline in beef prices in the past few months, Ren Lingfei believes that it is mainly a change in the supply side.
First, the domestic cattle breeding volume and slaughter volume have increased, and the second is the substantial increase in imported beef. The combination of the two will lead to a rapid increase in the total supply of beef in the market, which will inevitably lead to a decline in selling prices. On the other hand, with the development of fresh e-commerce, the public's beef procurement channels have also diversified, and it is not necessary to buy fresh beef from vegetable farms.
However, Ren Lingfei also said that in the second half of the year, beef and mutton prices may gradually stop falling and rebound. "Beef prices aren't going to fall all the time. Because the cost of raising cattle is there, the price of meat is too low, and cattle farmers will raise less or no cattle, and the market will adjust. ”
Beef consumption has a lot to do with the season. "Summer is the off-season for meat sales, and when the weather is hot, some people think that beef is warm and easy to get angry if you eat too much. When the weather gets cooler, everyone will buy more beef and mutton for supplementation. According to the market situation, Ren Lingfei expects that the price of beef will change around September and reach a high level during the Spring Festival next year.
Looking forward to the second half of the year, beef and mutton prices may gradually stop falling and recover. Due to the decline in breeding efficiency, to a certain extent, it will affect the enthusiasm of farmers to fill the column, and the production side will gradually adjust. In the first quarter of this year, the national cattle herd was 100 million, a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%; The sheep herd was 320 million, a year-on-year decrease of 2.8%. At the same time, the price of pork in the country has increased year-on-year. The gradual adjustment of the production end of cattle and sheep and the slight rise in pork prices will alleviate the downward pressure on beef and mutton prices in the later period.
Source: CCTV Comprehensive Daily Economic News, Poster News, Qianjiang Evening News, Taizhou Evening News, Economic Daily
Editor: Qiao Hong Proofreader: Chen Long