Even through the height of the pandemic, US beef remained a rockstar at the meat case and an ag economist doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon. Oklahoma State University’s Derrell Peel says part of that demand bump was due to federal stimulus dollars.
“But, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve really adjusted wage rates up in this country, generally speaking,” he says. “So consumers still have more money and we’re seeing that reflected in strong beef demand.”
He says even with higher beef prices there hasn’t been increased competition at the meat case from other proteins.
