The Trump administration’s plan to import 300,000 metric tons of tariff-free foreign-grown beef may not be having the anticipated impact. Dr. Nevil Speer, a beef industry consultant, talked about how the White House plan is working in U.S. grocery stores.
Looks like from initial data in September, only about 30,000 metric tons made it. So, only a third of the third initial tranche ultimately ended up here, and I think what’s probably interesting, the question would be, was there some product that would have come to the United States that actually headed the other way? Clearly, we haven’t flooded the market, which was the concern with beef imports. And by the way, at the end of the day, those were really lean trimmings, you know, to create hamburger. So, we also have not moved the price of hamburger much either.”
The move was made with the specific goal of lowering beef prices at the grocery store.
“We just know that grocery store prices don’t move that quickly one way or the other, and you just can’t have that kind of an impact, and trying to change the beef supply chain and move it is like turning the Titanic. It just doesn’t happen that way. I don’t think consumers have seen one bit of difference. And then I would also say separately, they’re not focused right now on the price of hamburger. They’re looking at the prices of gasoline and diesel every single day.”
Speer called the move a “nothing burger.”
“It really is a nothing burger, and I get it. Producers get really emotional about it, and I agree with them 100 percent, and I wrote about it. Right? It’s not the imports; it’s the interference. But let’s all take a breath a little bit and understand this is a huge business. At the end of the day, 300,000 metric tons isn’t that much. I wrote about it, that it’s unlikely all of it would come, and that’s kind of how it looks like it’s playing out. And so, yes, it was a nothing burger, or just kind of a big talking point for them to flash around on social media and say, ‘Look what we’re doing for consumers.’”