Good news for meat lovers

It used to be you ate red meat quite regularly but as current beef prices are at a record high, most of us can no longer afford it.

But good news is around the corner as experts say retails costs are expected to “flatline” soon.  

At the moment it’s never been more expensive to buy a decent cut of red meat – eye fillet cuts average more than $50 per kilogram and the cost of mince has doubled over the last two years to over $10/kg. 

The reasons behind the hike in price are a result of two factors according to Ben Thomas from Meat and Livestock Australia. 

He told ABC News that the shortage in US beef production and a drop in cattle herd members in Australia were the two culprits for the jump in meat prices. 

“While we have seen a significant rise in prices; Australian remains the fifth largest beef consumer in the world on a per capita basis,” Thomas said. 

The biggest consumers of meat are unsurprisingly the United States followed by Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

According to Thomas, significant rises in retail beef prices were cyclical and occurred “about every six to eight years” but he predicted those prices would “flatline in the foreseeable future”.

Robert Constable, NSW chairman of the Australian Meat Industry Council, told the ABC that prices aside, red meat consumption had been on a downward spiral since 2002 due to “changing lifestyles”.

“The good news about the benefits of eating beef, lamb and pork haven’t gotten out,” he said

“The rise in chicken has played a part of it also. Chicken consumption per capita is up by 10 per cent.”

Constable is also a retail butcher in Sydney and said individual consumption of meat per capita had declined from 37/kg a year to about 28/kg.

Despite Australia trying to claw its way back from its smallest cattle herd in two decades, Constable predicted lower prices as soon as next year.

“By October 2018 I think the wholesale price of beef in Australia will be 80 cents to $1 less than what it is now,” he said.

Seventy per cent of Australian beef produce is exported, followed by lamb at 55 per cent and of Australian mutton and goat meat, 95 per cent is sent overseas.

ABC News reported that most of our beef exports go to the US, which hit record highs in 2015 equating to about 400,000 tonnes or one-third of all Australian beef.

How often do you eat red meat? Have you cut back as a result of how expensive it is?