USDA Unveils Volume-Weighted Retail Meat Prices Database

Cattlemen now can find out just how much consumers pay for beef.  Retail prices for selected cuts of meat are now available on USDA’s Economic Research Service Web site.  The agency released the new report Oct. 22.

Using supermarket scanner data, USDA will maintain a database of monthly average retail prices for selected cuts of beef, veal, pork, poultry and lamb.  Consumers and producers can access the information by logging onto the site at www.ers.usda.gov/data/meatscanner. 

“The new volume-weighted retail price reporting from ERS will be the most accurate indication we ever had for the price of beef that is sold,” says Bryan Dierlam, NCBA’s director of legislative affairs.  “The ERS data is far superior to the BLS data — information already being provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — because it includes price data on more cuts, information on volumes sold, and the discount effects of featuring.”

The raw data underlying the database are from supermarkets across the United States that participate in commercial scanner data programs and account for approximately 20 percent of U.S. supermarket sales.

When Congress considered the Livestock Mandatory Report Act of 1999, NCBA insisted that USDA use private sources to calculate volume-weighted retail meat prices.  This reflects, in part, concerns about the effects of industry concentration on prices and reduced bargaining power of independent livestock producers.