top of mind news
- Maximize Your Menu With Meat Made From Plants
- With Delta Variant, Restaurants Must ‘Be a Student of the Past’
- Addressing the Restaurant Labor Shortage
- Casual Dining’s Traffic Is Nearly Back To Pre-Pandemic Levels, Study Finds
- Engage Your Team and You’ll Engage Your Customers
Poultry
Labor shortages persist across the business, but supply for many commodities is improving. Wings are becoming more readily accessible at the moment, but demand is projected to increase as football season approaches. Tenders cost a lot of money and are hard to come by. Breasts are in high demand, and the market is rising upward.
Beef
Prices are continuing to rise, while supply is decreasing. Finding product for the rib is now the primary priority; cost is a secondary consideration. Tenders and loin thin meats quickly rebound upwards due to decreased supply, benefiting the loin complex. With a mix of retail and export demand driving it, chucks and rounds are hard to come by and priced more.
Pork
Due to retail demand, bone in butts saw a little increase late last week and should now trade sideways. Loins are likewise trading in a sideways pattern. Spareribs are on their way back up due to increased demand and price cuts in recent weeks. Bellies appeared to have reached their peak and may be starting to decline, but fresh bellies are still in short supply.
THE SEA
Seafood
With the new season, the supply of brown shrimp and white shrimp has improved. Whites, browns, and peeled shrimp in certain sizes are still unavailable. The huge tails of North Atlantic lobster (56oz and greater) are on allocation until the start of the Nova Scotia lobster season in December. Crab meat that has been pasteurized is still in scarce supply.
THE GARDEN
Produce
Lack of manpower, freight, and operational issues continue to plague all parts of the industry, posing challenges in the supply chain flow from harvest to shipping to receiving.
THE KITCHEN SINK
Dairy
Natural cheese and mozzarella markets remained unchanged from week to week, but processed cheese markets fell. Butter prices remained unchanged from week to week. This week, extra large and big eggs have increased $0.02$0.03/dz, while medium eggs have increased $0.01/dz.
Grains
This year’s Canola crop will be harmed by the hot and dry weather in Canada. Corn will suffer some losses in the United States as well. Soybeans are doing better, although soybean oil stocks are down; nonetheless, soybean oil was down a little last week. Following soybean oil, palm oil was also down.
