Zimbabwean Cattle Producers Struggling

Zimbabwean cattle producers are facing a triple threat of drought, disease threats from Foot and Mouth, and lack of a ready market following the collapse of the government-run Cold Storage Commission processing company.

Zimbabwe formerly exported large amounts of beef to the EU, but Tawanda Korombo revealed that cattle numbers in the prime cattle-rearing area of Matabeleland have significantly declined.

"The region’s cattle numbers are likely to go down further and we have also seen the quality of most of the beef coming from this area go down because conditions are just not conducive at the moment,” said an Agriculture Ministry official.

Paddy Zhanda, the deputy minister of agriculture said this week that movement of cattle in the Matabeleland region has been restricted. There are mounting fears that the spread of foot and mouth could cross over to neighbouring South Africa and Botswana if it remains uncontrolled, which could have dire consequences for South Africa's recently regained beef export status into the EU – read more.

US Choice Beef Retail Prices Continue to Decline

September’s retail meat price results from the USDA show a decline in the retail price of Choice-grade beef for the fourth month in a row, reaching $6.23 per pound.

That’s the first time the price has been below year-ago levels since February 2010. However, University of Missouri Economists Ron Plain and Scott Brown noted in their weekly Cattle Outlook: “Even after some decline, the retail price is still higher than in any month prior to August 2014.”

The All-Fresh beef price, which included Select- and store-grade products, has held up better, dropping by just 0.1 per cent in September to $6.077 per retail pound.

CME analysts Steve Meyer and Len Steiner said that the narrower Choice-Select retail spread likely represents some substitution of lower-grade product by consumers – read more.