The boom market for beef is fading in Canada after record prices last year, but people will have to wait for costs to tumble in grocery stores.
The cattle industry has experienced a sudden drop in prices, forcing ranchers to adjust their expectations for the year.
"We had an incredible run. We doubled our prices in three years for calves, for example," said Brian Perillat, a senior analyst with CanFax, a cattle market research firm. "In the last few months, we've seen prices drop 15 to 20 per cent from the high."
Even with the market correction, prices are still at historically high levels. Experts say the price spike was too extreme a reaction as beef supplies tightened.
"It's a commodity market. We see big booms and busts with oil and we went through one with cattle," said Perillat.
Many questions
Other challenges for the beef industry include increased demands for transparency and sustainability. Questions about animal welfare and processing are becoming more prevalent and influencing how some people buy meat.
Traditionally, beef was the top-selling meat in Canada, but that's changed in the last decade, said Haley. Chicken is now the popular choice, Haley suggests, because it is a cheaper source of protein and it's perceived to be healthier than beef.
"If we want to sell more beef, we need to make it easy for the consumer. We need to make it interesting. We need to enhance flavour profiles. We need to demonstrate how to cook it and those types of things."
The sector also needs to keep pace with the trend of smaller packages of meat and more value-added products.
"I don't think we can stay where we are, because the times are a changing," he said.
In Canada, beef production keeps falling, although experts suggest that could change in 2016.
While the industry has seen the number of cattle decrease over the last decade, the size of cattle keeps climbing. In 1975, the average carcass weight was just above 270 kilograms, while in 2014 the weight was over 400 kilograms.
Source : CBC