Most recently, high unemployment in the world’s wealthiest
nation had cash-strapped Americans avoiding restaurants where
beef is a common entree and had them switching to lower cost non-meat dishes at home.
USDA estimates 2011 U.S. per capita beef consumption at
57.4 lbs, down 13 percent from 10 years ago and down about
25 percent from 1980. In 2012, USDA predicts, Americans
will eat 54.1 lbs of beef on average.
The beef industry is coping with these changes by developing
new cuts that will satisfy appetites for steaks but at a lower
cost. Also, it has benefited from a huge recovery in beef
exports particularly to Asia and Russia, where consumers
are upgrading their diets and concerns about mad cow disease fade.
Beef companies, like Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef,
are carving up beef carcasses in
interesting new ways.
Carcass portions that were once meant for ground meat or roasts,
such as rounds and chucks, are now sliced into cheaper cuts
of steaks for the American palate.
These new less expensive steak cuts became popular during the recession and still are, said Chris Calkins, professor of animal science at the University of Nebraska.
At the height of the recession the beef industry saw a decline in high-end steak consumption, such as tenderloin and ribeye, in fine dining restaurants.
This created an opportunity for beef companies and retailers to promote those higher-end cuts in supermarkets but in smaller portions, Trevor Amen, director of market intelligence at the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.
"We have been successful in maintaining sales and item movement by producing smaller and thinner packages of our more expensive beef items," said Karen May, external communications manager for Supervalu, a U.S.-based retail grocery chain.
As tough economic times and higher-priced food bite into America
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