Beef Industry Disappointed By Proposal To Purchase Beef

Many in the livestock sector are not happy with the Administration. Recently, President Trump told reporters on Air Force One that the U.S. would look at purchasing beef from Argentina, as an effort to bring down beef prices, which the President said have been “stubbornly high” for a number of reasons.

On Monday, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall said the NCBA is not only concerned with the White House’s plan, but “just flat disappointed”.

“We understand what he is trying to do, but what he does not realize is that in trying to bring the price of beef down for the consumer, it means he's going to bring down the price being paid for cattle for U.S. producers," Woodall noted. "So, in fact, this is a direct attack on U.S. cattle producers, and it negates so much of the work that we have done over the years to build the overall quality of our product, a quality that we're very proud of.”

The Administration Should Seek Industry Before Making Comments

Woodall added the American consumer likes what U.S. ranchers are providing, and with beef demand near a 40-year high, he contends that consumers want more of it. He also encouraged the President and Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins to reach out to the NCBA for numbers and statistics behind the current beef market.

“But there also needs to be a realization from the president, from the secretary, that any offhanded comment, as innocuous as they may think that it is, can have huge ramifications on the marketplace," Woodall said. "And we saw that on Friday when the futures markets just absolutely crashed. And that cost this industry and a lot of cattle producers a lot of money.”

Concerns From Northwest Producers

"While we don't have any details on specifics of the reported plan at this point, we do have concerns. Namely, the health safety issue of foot & mouth disease, as Argentina has a history with this dangerous disease and exposing the U.S. beef supply would be catastrophic," said Cameron Mulrony, Executive Vice President of the Idaho Cattle Association. "Additionally, we'd prefer that American free market have an opportunity to work, as opposed to participating in further purchasing from Argentina, who has demonstrated an unbalanced trading relationship with the U.S. in recent years. We know that Idaho beef producers continue to produce a safe, quality, nutritious product and consumers have demonstrated that they want to continue buying this product."

Would COOL Help In This Situation?

“We acknowledge that beef prices are higher than what a competitive market would predict," Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA. "Decades of failure to manage excessive imports and address unprecedented industry concentration have caused beef prices to disproportionately increase more than cattle prices.

“As beef prices increased, our cattle herd shrank because increasing volumes of imports displaced the need for domestic cattle. Then along came a drought that accelerated the ongoing decline of our domestic herd, converting our industry’s chronic problem into today’s acute problem.

“Global packers are importing beef from about 20 different countries, including Argentina, and because we do not have a mandatory country-of-origin labeling law for beef, the global packers do not need to reduce the price of imported product compared to domestic product," Bullard added. "This negates any theoretical benefit of using more imports to drive down domestic beef prices.

“The president should immediately require mandatory country-of-origin labels on beef so American consumers can choose to help rebuild and expand our nation’s contracted cattle herd," Bullard stated.

“President Trump’s plan to buy beef from Argentina is a betrayal of the American rancher," said Farm Action’s Senior Director of Programs Christian Lovell. Those of us who raise cattle have finally started to see what profit looks like after facing years of high input costs and market manipulation by the meatpacking monopoly.

Trump Is Asking Like The President Of Argentina

"After crashing the soybean market and gifting Argentina our largest export buyer, he’s now poised to do the same to the cattle market. Importing Argentinian beef would send U.S. cattle prices plummeting—and with the meatpacking industry as consolidated as it is, consumers may not see lower beef prices either. Washington should be focused on fixing our broken cattle market, not rewarding foreign competitors.”

"With these actions, President Trump risks acting more like the president of Argentina than president of the United States.”

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