Meat prices keep going up
By Bruce Kennedy, MoneyWatch
While consumers gear up for all the end-of-year celebrations, they are also shelling out more for that holiday ham, roast or turkey.
Meat prices across the board have moved higher in 2014, led by record highs in U.S. beef prices. Cattlefax, an information and analysis service, notes the USDA’s retail beef price rose to a record high of $5.96 a pound in October.
Steve Meyer, livestock market analyst and president of Paragon Economics, says that through October of this year retail prices on all fresh meats were up around 12.4 percent, compared to the same time period a year ago.
A number of factors are behind the jump, but the main issues appear to be weather, disease and demand.