By Tom Polansek, Trevor Hunnicutt and Costas Pitas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his administration was working to lower the price of beef in the country.
“We are working on beef, and I think we have a deal on beef,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The price of beef is “higher than we want it, and that’s going to be coming down pretty soon too. We did something,” Trump added, without elaborating.
Beef prices have climbed to record highs after cattle ranchers slashed their herds due to a yearslong drought in the western United States that dried up lands used for grazing and raised feeding costs.
By the beginning of the year, the herd had dwindled to 86.7 million cattle, the smallest number for the time period since 1951, according to U.S. government data.
The Meat Institute, which represents meatpacking companies, said it needed to learn more about Trump’s plans to lower prices.
The administration of former President Joe Biden blamed meatpacking companies for rising food costs.
Last week, processors Tyson Foods and Cargill agreed to pay a combined $87.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit brought by consumers who accused the companies of conspiring to inflate beef prices by restricting supply. The companies have denied wrongdoing.
Meatpackers such as Tyson have lost money in their beef businesses as tight cattle supplies force them to pay more to buy animals to slaughter.
Supplies tightened further this year after the U.S. Department of Agriculture halted imports of Mexican livestock to keep out a damaging pest spreading in Mexico. Mexican cattle were formerly imported to be fattened in U.S. feedlots and slaughtered in U.S. processing plants.
Tariffs that Trump imposed on Brazilian goods have also slowed U.S. imports of Brazilian beef that was mixed with U.S. supplies to make hamburger meat.
Recently, some U.S. ranchers have begun taking initial steps to start rebuilding the herd. However, it takes about two years before beef output rises after they make the first moves to expand because that is how long it takes to raise full-grown cattle, ranchers said.
Last month, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA in mid-October would provide details on a plan to revitalize the decimated herd that would not include payments to producers.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Costas Pitas and Tom Polansek; Writing by Ismail Shakil, Editing by Franklin Paul and Diane Craft)
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