beef

Supermarket buyers trying to avoid further inflation Cattle finishers attack pricing Complaints by beef cattle finishers against supermarkets sound increasingly like the protests from pig producers. Multiples are accused of trying to impose oppressive top down' pricing and of blackmailing processors with the threat of cheap imports ­ yet the farmers are enjoying some of the highest prices in Europe after an unexpected market surge so far in 1999. "Supermarket buyers have told their abattoir suppliers they won't pay more for beef, no matter what happens to the price of cattle, and the biggest slaughterers have been forced to apply downwards pressure to maintain margins," said NBA chief executive Robert Forster in his latest market commentary. "The biggest deadweight buyers have been quoting prices 6p below those usually obtained against a conversion formula based on the national live steer average." Talk is of Forster being broadly correct. Supermarket buyers are trying to avoid further beef price inflation, and some are bringing in extra product from Ireland. The source of increasing tension may be over-estimation by producers of the post-BSE recovery in demand. Taylor Nelson Sofres household purchase estimates show strong volume and spending growth, especially for steaks and mince, in the February-April period. But stripping out possibly distorting seasonal influences leaves the overall market looking flat. TN Sofres figures for the 52 weeks to early May suggested total retail beef sales did not increase at all in volume. Expenditure rose just 1%. Meanwhile official Brussels beef reference prices imply British retailers are indirectly financing cattle prices about 6% above the EU average. {{MEAT }}