Why is Meat so Expensive Right Now???

Why is Meat so Expensive Right Now???

Stawnichy’s Submitted

As many of you have undoubtedly noticed, the prices of beef and pork at your local grocery store have skyrocketed lately and this couldn’t happen at a worse time for most consumers. This is a very complicated time with all that is happening around us in the world and to make matters worse, now consumers have to deal with price gouging from the major slaughterhouses. We couldn’t be more furious and disheartened to see this happening when people are already struggling enough.

Thousands of Albertans have lost their jobs, many are struggling financially, and now we also have to deal with out of control, greedy abattoirs trying to take further advantage of consumers who are already finding it hard to make ends meet. If the rest of the supply chain was seeing any of the benefit of higher beef/ pork prices, it might make some feel better. However, the truth is… ranchers and producers are not seeing any higher profits for their animals than before, despite the dramatic increase in prices from the slaughterhouses. Beef and pork prices have risen over 50 percent in the last 4 weeks alone. This is absolutely unheard of and a travesty to the hardworking people of Alberta, who are already facing enough economic uncertainty.

Supply and demand can be blamed for a portion of this increase, but in the end, there is blatant price gouging occurring. Ranchers and producers are struggling too, with many having to euthanize their animals because they can’t get their animals into these slaughterhouses, as they have had to reduce capacity due to highly publicized issues related to COVID-19. The reason for the lack of capacity is because jointly the federal and provincial governments have been working to fund the consolidation of the slaughterhouse industry over the last 10-15 years with taxpayer’s money. They have paid producers to go out of business, and have forced smaller abattoirs to close due to lack of available product. They essentially have created a massive monopoly with 2-3 major slaughterhouses, and thousands of employees working in each location, and have done so under the guise of “efficiency” and “lower prices”.

Now, these mega-slaughterhouses are having issues due to COVID-19 and are looking, once again, to the various levels of government to bail them out. This was an issue that was inevitably going to occur, with the centralization of meat production coming from a small number of locations. They now, again, have their hands out for help, and are using YOUR tax dollars to gouge YOU at the grocery store.

Unfortunately, that leaves many producers who rely on these raw inputs to produce your food, with no option but to raise their prices to survive – which does nothing but hurt the consumer. We are in no different situation, and that is leading us to have to raise our prices for the first time in over 6 years. This is not a decision we take lightly, but one we must make to survive as a business.

There are many ways to help this situation. The first is to lobby your local MLA, Alberta’s Minister of Agriculture Devin Dreeshen (AF.minister@gov.ab.ca), Premier Jason Kenney (premier@gov.ab.ca), Federal Agriculture Minister, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau (Marie-Claude. Bibeau@parl.gc.ca), and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They must be made aware that the consumers of this province will not stand for being taken advantage of during these already difficult economic times.

Secondly, the system must be fixed to provide fair prices for beef and pork producers, while protecting the consumers of Alberta. A move to smaller abattoirs is essential to keeping this kind of power out of the hands of 2 or 3 major companies – and prevents this kind of pricing abuse. We must create resiliency in the food chain, and having a network of smaller producers, abattoirs and reduced government regulation is the only way to keep these kinds of abuses of the system from happening. It’s the only way to keep the hard working people of Alberta employed, and not facing economic ruin. If there is money to be thrown at this industry, it should be thrown at diversification away from the monopoly that previous governments have allowed, and more specifically, pushed to happen.

We are sorry that it has come to this, but a price increase is the only way we can continue operations. We will continue to fight as hard as we can for the people of Alberta for a fair system – one that doesn’t allow for large manufacturers to take advantage of consumers under the cover of a worldwide pandemic. We will continue to fight for our western Canadian pork and beef producers who work tirelessly to feed your families every single day.