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- Navigating Spring Challenges
Poultry
Bird mortality, hatchability, and weights are limiting product availability and driving up costs. There is a high demand and limited supply for breasts. It’s still difficult to find wings in the market. There is a high demand for tenders and no excess supply. The desire for dark meat is still high. Whole birds, still mostly balanced.
Beef
The supply and demand are still matching. While strips and tenders continue to rise because to increased demand and limited supply, ribs remain stable. Chuck should make corrections in the following weeks, but it looks like end cuts have reached a ceiling as insides. In the short run, thin meats and grinds are experiencing the most artificial assistance due to restricted harvest.
Pork
The butts of B/I are rising. Since there has been some downturn in the boneless industry, boneless butt sales are declining. The market for ribs is predicted to continue rising since supply is anticipated to become more limited throughout the warmer months. As retail demand for loins rises, loin prices are also rising. Bellies continue to go down.
The Sea
Seafood
The Pacific Halibut season has begun, and while whole fish prices are now higher, it is anticipated that they will decrease over the next few weeks. The supply of lobster in the North Atlantic is still decreasing, and prices are rising. Due to increased supply, warm water lobster prices have remained stable and have not grown as anticipated.
Produce
We continue to experience shortfalls on several winter veg items out of Mexico and Florida due to the impacts of El Niño with the shortest item being color pepper. Pro-rates and further price escalations may happen on these items this week as supply gets critically low. The hot pepper market is shorter this week with low volume and moderate demand continuing to put upward pressure on pricing. We will see a dip in production on the entire tomato category as transition from winter to spring crops get underway. Improvement on supply not expected for 2-3 weeks and concerns over the water restrictions are making shortages a possibility. Overall, the current supply remains at record lows until we see some consistency in weather, this will only continue to hamper a recovery.
Kitchen Sink
Dairy
Despite a decrease in the total amount of shell eggs in stock, all shell egg markets are rising. The markets in California and the Northwest are stagnant, but with Easter, they might rise. Based on export, the Block decreases and the Barrel is increases. Although butter doesn’t rise, it can due to variations in milk production and the demand for cream.
Grain
Last week, soybean oil saw another increase as fund traders resumed purchasing contracts rather than disposing of them. This week’s plating intentions report is expected, and some acres are predicted to shift from corn to soybeans. In Europe, palm stabilized with a short-term balance, while canola rose upward with fewer planted acres.
