Agricultural News
Out-Front Boxed Beef Sales Spike Ahead of Holiday Season, Fresh Beef Imports Declining
Mon, 23 Nov 2015 18:01:11 CST
On a regular basis, Ed Czerwein of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Market News Office in Amarillo, Texas offers a review of the previous week's boxed beef trade. Here is the weekly boxed beef trade for week ending November 21st. The daily spot Choice boxed beef cutout ended the week last Friday at $203.14 which was $6.16 lower compared to previous Friday. There were 850 loads sold for the week in the daily boxed beef cutout compared to 754 loads previous week. It was about 12 percent of the total volume.
The comprehensive or weekly average Choice cutout which includes all types of sales including the daily spot cutout was $208.86 which was $4.92 lower.
There were 6,863 total loads sold which was 255 loads higher than the previous week. The formula sales were at 3,367 loads which was 72 loads higher than last week and was 49 percent of the total loads sold this week.
Exports as reported on the Boxed Beef report represent primarily muscle cuts and they really dropped from last week's number and were at 483 loads. That was 645 loads lower. Sales to North American Free Trade Agreement neighbors totaled 135 loads and 348 loads were shipped overseas but the overseas last week were 964 loads.
The out-front sales which won't be delivered for at least 22 days were 1,371 loads. That was 87 loads higher than last week and typical for this time of the year.
Taking a look at the weekly average primal cut prices. The Choice middle meats, which includes the rib, was only $2 higher after quite a few weeks of big jumps during the seasonal rally this time of the year. The rib was the primal that carried the Choice cut out higher last year until late November. The loin was $5 lower. The Choice chuck and round primals were five to 11 lower.
The cow cutout was $1.50 higher at $173.68 on Friday. Those 90 percent trimmings ended the week at $212.20 which was $4 higher compared to the previous Friday but they had been as low as $206 during the week.
The latest report of imported meat passed for entry into the US for week ending November 14 showed that week we imported 15,330 metric tons of fresh beef. That was 600 metric tons lower. Year-to-date for the first 46 weeks of this year we are running 21 percent higher fresh beef imports than last year but that has dropped almost weekly in the last few months. Australia was 33 percent higher dropping weekly from 65 percent earlier in the summer, and New Zealand was up 20 percent. Fresh beef imports have been stair stepping down for the last few months and most of the recent weeks have been below a year ago. The year to date numbers are still above a year ago because of the massive jump earlier in the year.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ed's comments about the weekly boxed beef trade.
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