On a regular basis, Ed Czerwein of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Market News Office in Amarillo, Texas offers a review of the previous week's boxed beef trade. Here is the weekly boxed beef trade for week ending August 29 The daily spot Choice box beef cutout ended the week last Friday at $243.22 which was $1.68 lower compared to previous Friday. There were 625 loads sold for the week in the daily box beef cutout, which was almost 101 percent of the total volume. The weakening daily cutout once again corresponds to the fact that we are approaching the end of the Labor Day production period.
The comprehensive or weekly average Choice cutout which includes all types of sales including the daily spot cutout was $241.13 which was 16 cents higher.
There were 6,398 total loads sold which was 29 loads higher than the previous week. The formula sales were at 3,481 loads which was 58 loads lower than last week and was 54 percent of the total loads sold this week.
Exports as reported on the Boxed Beef report represent primarily muscle cuts and they were at 765 loads which was 70 loads higher. Sales to North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) neighbors totaled 117 loads and 648 loads were shipped overseas.
The outfront sales which won’t be delivered for at least 22 days were 1,111 loads which was 189 loads higher than last week. We are entering a time period when outfront sales normally jump.
Taking a look at the weekly average primal cut prices. The Choice middle meats which are the loins and ribs were steady to seven higher indicating increased grilling demand as we prepared for this holiday. The choice chuck and the round were one to four lower which is again quite a bit below the rally that we saw last summer.
The Cow Cutout ended the week 47 cents lower at $222.07 and the 90 percent trimmings were $1.14 lower at $281.79 compared to the previous Friday.
The latest report of imported meat passed for entry into the US for August 22 showed that week we imported 24,954 metric tons of fresh beef which was almost 2,000 metric tons lower and equates to about 55 million pounds imported for that one week. Year-to-date for the first 34 weeks of this year we are still running 30 percent higher fresh beef imports than last year and that is on top of last year’s increases. Australia was still 55 percent higher, and New Zealand was up 19 percent.
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