Watching Your Wallet: Navigating rising beef prices

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Peak grilling season has families flocking to Renna's Meat Market in northeast Fresno.

"Everything we do is fresh," says manager Joseph Renna. "All of our ground beefs and sausages are made old-fashioned style."

Located off of First and Ashlan, the family-owned business has been serving the community since 1935.

Renna says the shop has been in his family for four generations, so they're getting creative to not pass rising beef prices to their customers.

"We get new price sheets every week, but it has been climbing faster than it normally would," he said.

In addition to "special savings," meat packs with bulk pricing are available, and you can create your own.

"We're offering better volume deals and everything we wrap is freezer-ready, so you can commit to a little more, keep that price down," Renna said. "A lot of these clients have been with me since I was a teenager, so if I can bring them down, I always will."

As of July, ground beef was priced at approximately $6.34 per pound across the US. That's up 9 percent compared to a year ago ($5.71 per pound).

Steak is up 12 percent.

"What's going on in the beef industry is changing dramatically over the last 3 to 5 years," says Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen.

Jacobsen says there are several factors contributing to the rise in prices.

"Year 2020 to 2022, there were some severe droughts, specifically in the Western US, so there was a lot of cattlemen selling off their herds at that point because they couldn't afford to feed them and it was a multi-year prolonged drought," he said.

That was also the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, where we saw inflation drive up prices exponentially.

He says there are also fewer cattlemen and women, meaning prices could take years to rebound.

"This is an industry that's really shrunk because of the difficulty, both financial and just the stresses from the human side of it, when it comes to raising those animals," Jacobsen said.

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