reuters.com
www.reuters.com

Australian beef has replaced U.S. supply in China since Donald Trump returned to the White House, funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars that have in previous years gone to the U.S. cattle industry into Australian pockets.

U.S. shipments to China, worth around $120 million a month, collapsed after Beijing in March allowed permits to expire at hundreds of American meat facilities and as Trump unleashed a tit-for-tat tariff war.

Other U.S. farm exports to China, the world’s biggest food importer, have also suffered since Trump retook power. On soybeans alone, U.S. farmers have lost out on shipments worth billions of dollars during the current harvest season.

  • hector@lemmy.todayEnglish
    114·
    2 days ago

    Oh no our beef is not being sold to china!

    Because that affects us. It does not that was sarcasm, at best it would raise our prices, not a win. Our prices are already above their price points however.

    Because of gate keeping agricorps, blaming ranchers they squeeze for their price fixing. It worked on eggs, why not?

    • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
      41·
      2 days ago

      Because of gate keeping agricorps, blaming ranchers they squeeze for their price fixing. It worked on eggs, why not?

      Looks like a double knock out combo of covid + climate change did a lot of damage and most aren’t interested in rebuilding quickly due to high costs. Highlighted the important bits:

      As it got harder to feed and otherwise maintain their herds, producers in the summer of 2022 slaughtered more beef cows than ever in the USDA record keeping. They were already reeling from losses during the pandemic, which disrupted meatpacking plants, plus rising inflation and interest rates. Beef prices tumbling from too much available meat further discouraged ranchers from replenishing their herds.

      Repopulation is still going very slowly — for new reasons. Facing ever-higher operations costs, ranchers are leery of investing in an expansion. And the record values that cattle can fetch mean that it’s often more profitable to sell young females (called heifers) for meat than to keep them for breeding.

      “There’s not a lot of incentive to rapidly rebuild the herd,” Blackett says. “Us, along with ranchers across the United States, are selling those heifers that might otherwise be retained into the herd.”

      And given that it takes years to raise a new cow, beef may remain in short supply for a long while.

      https://www.npr.org/2025/09/18/nx-s1-5534424/beef-prices-record-high-cost

      • The_v@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        Missed a big one.

        The U.S. is mostly a net importer of beef. The herd size normally does not satisfy the market and it requires significant imports to make up the difference.

        The U.S. herd size is cyclical and historically relatively easy to predict. So producers/exporters/importers had a good guess roughly a year or more in advanced when prices would climb or fall.

        https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/sector-at-a-glance

        Toss in some dumbass who fucks up trade with tariffs and the exporting counties can no longer predict the market. Then TACO happens or doesn’t happen at random. Uncertainty in the market trend means that producers are unwilling to increase their herd size to adapt, anywhere.

        The safest bet is to sell down their herd size at the high prices to capture the margin now. Then maintain a smaller herd for the duration of the uncertainty.

        Dairy farmers are pretty much the only ones that are doing quite well right now. Feed inputs are low, butcher prices for their cows is high and sexed semen means they can cross 1/2 their herd with beef breeds to maximize their profit. Day old 1/2 bred calf’s are selling for astronomical prices right now. Selling off their herd and retiring early is a viable option right now as well.

      • hector@lemmy.todayEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Yes I read this previously. But it changes nothing, a literal handful of agriculture conglomerates control any one Market whether it is beef or pork or chicken, have been squeezing farmers, and ranchers as the case may be, and fixing prices in illegal trusts that the United States no longer enforces against because captured courts and regulators.