GETTING ANSWERS: Why meat is so expensive right now - KSLA

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - We’re feeling the price hikes at the pump, and now, at the grocery store too. It’s going to cost you a pretty penny if you want pork on the menu for dinner tonight.

Bacon prices have skyrocketed to record levels, and it doesn’t look like they’re coming down any time soon. KSLA’s Kori Johnson spent the day looking into the reason behind the increase and who it’s affecting the most.

The cost of bacon is higher for Americans than it has been in the past 40 years. Your craving for smothered pork shops is costing you about 7% more than this time in 2020. And while your wallet may feel the impact if you opt for ham with your dinner tonight, local business owners are seeing the pork price hikes firsthand.

“I’m now paying my wholesalers what I used to for retail meat for pre-COVID. We do have to pass it on to the consumer, which is inflation. As far as pork goes, 10 to 25 percent increases, which I’ve had to pass on. Beef prices, anywhere from 50 to 100 percent, which I’ve had to pass on,” said Ross Barclay, owner of Maxwell’s Market.

It’s a price adjustment Barclay says he hasn’t seen in 26 years in the food industry.

“It’s absolutely shocking. I just don’t see how it’s sustainable. I don’t know how long it’s going to last. It hurts me, it hurts the basic consumer,” he said.

So how did we get here?

“Any time you see increases like this, there’s gotta’ be more than one reason and in this case, there is,” Barclay said.

And he’s right. The average price for those slices of bacon next to your eggs this morning jumped nearly 28% in the last 12 months, according to inflation-adjusted consumer price index data. It’s the result of panic stricken consumers buying up deep freezers at the start of the pandemic and stocking up on meat, slow production in meat packing plants, which is creating a backlog, and inflation. All of which, consumers are seeing when they walk the aisles of the grocery store.

“No, I really can’t,” said Ann Shanley, a shopper at Maxwell’s Market, when asked if she can remember meat prices being as high as they are now. She says she shops at the market at least a couple of times per week.

Despite the hike for chops, Shanley says for her, shopping locally is more important now than ever.

“We’ve lost so many [local businesses]. I’d like to keep what we have, especially ones like Maxwell’s,” she said.

Even with help from the community, pork production is expected to close out the year 2% lower than 2020 levels. Business owners like Barclay are wondering what’s next.

“I’ve been doing this for 26 years. At this point, I’ve been wrong for about a year and a half. My distributors have been wrong, the market surveys have been wrong. I have no earthly idea,” he said.

The Biden administration says it believes the price surges are in part due to a couple of large companies controlling the majority of the market share. The administration says it has outlined plans to level the playing field.

Copyright 2021 KSLA. All rights reserved.

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GETTING ANSWERS: Why meat is so expensive right now - KSLA
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