Trump announces temporary beef imports to lower prices. US beef producers say it won’t work
President Trump announced a plan to import roughly 660 million pounds of ground beef over the next 90 days to reduce food prices, but experts warn the policy could harm the very people it aims to help.
WASHINGTON —
President Donald Trump announced a plan to temporarily import 300,000 metric tons—or roughly 660 million pounds—of ground beef into the United States over the next 90 days to address rising food prices.
The imported beef will be sold at 25% below current market prices, according to the president, who made the announcement on social media Friday.
Our Get the Facts Data Team reports that the average price of ground beef has grown to a high, reaching $6.89 per pound last month. Economists attribute that price surge to the U.S. cattle supply, which has shrunk to its lowest level in over six decades, driven in part by drought and high feed costs.
“We need profitable prices to expand production, to bring prices down, yet here’s a policy response that addresses high beef prices for consumers and works to move prices lower,” David Anderson, an agricultural economist at Texas A&M University, said. “That hurts the incentive to grow domestically and produce more beef here.”
Economists also note that the U.S. is already importing record amounts of beef this year, primarily from Brazil and Australia, according to the Get the Facts team.
And soon, the U.S. will resume imports of cattle from Mexico on Monday, which had stopped due to a previous screwworm infestation.
However, experts warn that flooding the market with imported beef may temporarily lower prices for consumers but also discourage American ranchers from rebuilding their herds.
“The idea that this is going to give our cattle industry an opportunity to recover and grow the herd is more rhetoric than it is anything substantial,” Andrew Griffith, professor of agriculture and economics a the University of Tennessee said. “What can three months do to make any changes to grow the cattle herd? It’s not going to happen.”
Responding to the President’s announcement, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association called the move “a disappointment.”
“While America’s cattle producers share the goal of keeping groceries affordable for consumers, flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd,” a statement read in part. “Today’s announcement and other market interventions throw cold water on the prospect of herd expansion and sacrifices long-term stability for short term messaging.”
Experts say fixing the U.S.’ low cattle inventory could take years and can’t be addressed with a quick 90 day fix, although Griffith suggests opening up more federal grazing land could be one way to help ranchers feed their herds.
President Trump did not clarify who the deal to import beef was with or what countries the meat would be imported from.
“I don’t want to say which countries, but there are a few countries. But they’re going to be sending in the highest quality beef, which is something that we need,” he said late Friday.
Watch more coverage on the U.S. beef market:
