Recent trade disputes have decreased global demand for American agricultural products, causing a surplus of more than 2.5B pounds of meat.
While the price of your frozen meatballs may fall, the unpredictable market is a disaster for farmers and agricultural producers — and while a recently approved $12B bailout will buy (some) farmers time, it won’t stabilize volatile markets.
Due to increasing consumer demand, ranchers are projected to produce a record 102.7B pounds of meat this year. But China and Mexico recently passed meaty tariffs (62% and 20%, respectively) on US pork.
Now, cold-storage warehouse owners are scrambling to expand their operations to keep meat cold so farmers can sell it.
But in the meantime, bacon waits for no man — prices for pork have already dropped 14% as supply continues to exceed demand.
’Merica’s meat market isn’t the only one in trouble — the US stockpile of cheese also recently hit 1.39B pounds, causing problems in the dairy industry.
To prevent farmers from completely choking on their cheese, the Trump administration passed a $12B emergency relief fund to insulate farmers from protectionist policies.
But farmers have already lost an estimated $13B from the recent tariffs. If the US remains as tariff-happy as it has been in recent months, those losses will continue to increase — and 3.89B pounds of rotting cheese and meat is gonna stink…