Market analysts said most shoppers are willing to spend a little more to purchase higher quality meat cuts for Father’s Day celebrations. They may cut back on spending of other products instead to make up the difference and keep their overall food spending within their budgets.
Chicken was a distant third and used primarily in a sub-feature role. Items from this category were found mainly in the middle pages of the newspaper inserts and store flyers. However, chicken is expected to be more prominently featured in the weeks ahead due to attractive wholesale prices in recent weeks.
Premium beef cuts widely promoted this week include T-bones, strips and rib-eyes. Some supermarket chains also featured mid-priced steaks to attract customers who can’t afford the premium cuts but want to purchase a good-quality steak for the holiday weekend.
Beef packers have been operating their plants at high levels in recent weeks to meet the strong demand. Cattle slaughter rates in the past five non-holiday weeks have averaged about 710,000 head, compared with 688,000 for the same period a year ago.
The Dow Jones Newswires 10-city survey also showed that many of the grocers are offering hamburger, ground chuck or round at attractive prices. This week’s average price for each of the product categories was below the previous week and year-ago figures.
Grocers have been reluctant to book as much pork for feature sales as they did in April and May when prices were more attractive, analysts and meat brokers said. Pork carcass values quoted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in early April were the lowest in 51 months but rallied sharply and by mid-May topped year-ago levels by nearly $5.00 per hundredweight.
Analysts and brokers said grocers actively featured pork in May that they had purchased earlier at low prices. After wholesale prices moved up to, then through, the year-earlier quotes, buying interest turned slower in late May and early June. There have also been anecdotal reports that some international markets are purchasing less pork after prices moved higher. Delayed reporting of meat export sales will cause analysts, traders and others to wait for about two months before the data for May export shipments will be available.

cattlenetwork.com