Tyson Foods Chief Executive Donnie Smith says consumers should brace for even higher meat prices in the grocery aisle.
Both beef and pork prices have climbed significantly at the wholesale level since the start of the year, Smith said in an interview with CNBC. He predicted more record-high meat prices this year.
“Meat demand is still really good, and so we’re able to pass those prices along. I think you should expect to see very high prices for your ground beef, your other meat cuts, all the pork cuts will be higher this year,” Smith said on Wednesday.
Chicken prices have also begun to move upward in their typical seasonal pattern, Smith said.
Livestock analysts Steve Meyer and Len Steiner, writing in the Daily Livestock Report, said an expanding breeder flock has not yet resulted in increased chicken output.
“The record-high beef prices of January and now record-high pork values – with more records possible as PEDv losses exert more impacts on hog supplies this summer – point to a golden opportunity for chicken,” Meyer and Steiner wrote.
Tyson’s Smith, in a press release issued in conjunction with an investor conference on Wednesday, acknowledged that the PEDv virus is hurting hog producers and will likely result in reduced hog supplies and higher prices.
The company reiterated that it expects to continue to generate “stable, consistent earnings growth.”