Canadian beef is about to enter the market. Will the price of beef fall and affect the profits of cattle farmers?

Experts believe that imported beef can effectively curb beef smuggling, and the price of American beef is relatively cheap, which allows people to eat cheap beef. But ordinary people are still skeptical about whether beef prices can be reduced, because the current price of imported beef in Australia is still higher than the price of domestic beef. Cattle farmers are most worried about imported beef. They are worried about the huge impact of large amounts of imported beef on the domestic market.

The price of beef in the United States is about US$2 per catty, which is less than 15 yuan. The current price of domestic beef is more than 30 yuan per catty, but imported beef needs to pay certain tariffs. According to the China Animal Husbandry Association Industry branch president Xu Shangzhong analyzed that the price of U.S. beef + transportation costs + import tariffs should still be cheaper than domestic beef prices.

The eternal answer to how to make more money is to reduce costs, improve quality, expand scale, etc. The same is true for farmers growing grain. What should we do if we no longer make money? The solution is to reduce costs, increase yields, and switch to other crops. However, as a farmer, the cost of growing grains is beyond his control. The prices of agricultural inputs are rising, so how can we start talking about reducing costs. Nowadays, cattle farmers have the same solution when faced with the impact, reducing costs and improving quality. However, it is not realistic for farmers to achieve this within a period of time. Experts believe that domestic beef has its own advantages, including transportation advantages, and can be sold as cold meat. Foreign beef is all frozen meat due to transportation reasons. Domestic beef can make full use of its advantages in cold fresh meat.

Although the United States is the world's largest beef producer, the impact of liberalizing the import of American beef on the Chinese market is not as great as imagined. In recent years, the Chinese beef market has ushered in an import boom from several world-class beef powers. Neither Australian nor Brazilian beef has had a disruptive impact on the Chinese beef industry, so the arrival of American beef is not that scary. However, as China opens its door to beef imports to more and more major cattle-raising countries, the real impact is not on China’s cattle-raising industry, but on smuggled frozen beef. In recent years, an alarming amount of beef has entered China through smuggling channels, which is actually one of the biggest factors affecting China’s local beef. At present, the beef smuggled into China from abroad is basically in the form of frozen meat, and its domestic price is about 40 yuan/kg. The reason why smuggling was rampant in the past was largely due to this price advantage. But if U.S. beef comes in, the price imported through formal channels may be this price or even lower, then the living space of smuggled beef will be greatly squeezed. From this perspective, smuggled beef may have a greater impact on U.S. beef than Chinese local beef in the future, and may even be a boon to Chinese beef.