The cost of ground beef, steak and roasts has continued to rise this year, reaching historic levels on grocery store shelves.
Retail beef prices fluctuate regularly, but have generally climbed throughout the last few years.
The rising prices come on the eve of the busiest time for many grocers and meat shops in the leadup to the holiday season.
“I’ve been working here for quite a while and it’s probably the all-time high I’ve ever seen,” said Jim Jackson, owner of Cut Rite Meats in Calgary.
Beef prices have been rising at a higher rate compared to pork and chicken, he says, and some customers have pulled back a bit on how much they order.
“Our profit at the end of the day is less. I don’t want to gouge customers. We’re just trying to do our best,” he said, about lowering his margins on beef.
Retail prices have mirrored the rising value of cattle, which reached record levels this year.
Overall, food prices at grocery stores have increased by 2.7 per cent over the last 12 months, according to the latest data released by Statistics Canada last week.
A kilogram of ground beef was selling for about $13 on average in September, compared to $11.69 one year earlier and about $9 five years ago.
Beef striploin cuts climbed past $32 per kilogram in September, after selling for about $20 in December 2023.
In Alberta, cattle prices increased 7.6 per cent in September compared to the same month in 2023, to $236.08 per hundredweight, according to Statistics Canada.
Five years ago, slaughtered cattle prices were selling for about $130 per hundredweight.
“We are at record prices,” said Brenna Grant, executive director of Canfax, a Canadian beef statistics firm based in Calgary.
Some feeder cattle are selling for 21 per cent more compared to last year, she said, while average prices for cattle are up between 45 and 65 per cent compared to the five-year average.
“We’ve got to remember fundamentally, globally, we’ve got a growing population, a growing middle class and they want more protein. It’s not just beef, it’s pork and poultry as well and [consumers] wanting to have more of that product,” she said.
The amount of cattle in the country has fallen in recent years as many ranchers faced rising expenses, such as feed costs because of drought conditions.
The number of cattle is the smallest since 1987.
“Beef is a complicated commodity because nobody can turn on beef supply in the short term,” said Ellen Goddard, an agricultural economist and professor emerita at the University of Alberta.
“Cow-calf producers on the Prairies largely make decisions about how many cows they’re going to keep in their herd, and that determines how many calves they have, and that determines how much beef supply we have two and a half years after that. So there’s this long biological lag in production.”
Fewer cattle has resulted in less beef available to be sold on store shelves.
“The industry is in full-fledged liquidation mode now and as a result supplies are lower and, not surprisingly, prices are higher,” said Kevin Grier, a livestock market analyst.
Some ranchers are considering whether to grow their herds again as their profit margins have improved.
Strong consumer demand in North America for steaks and ground beef is also contributing to higher prices.
“Canadians and Americans are still stepping up to the meat case,” said Grier. “We’ve got at least another year, perhaps into 2026, of very tight supply of beef.”
Cuts of beef continue to sell even at the record-high prices because it’s often regarded as the best quality of meat and most desirable, says Goddard.
“Beef is the Cadillac,” she said.