Meat lovers are in the throes of a wallet-knocking increase in the price of beef, which began to sky-rocket in December and will rise by a total of 30% by the end of the year following the effects of a three-year drought.
Queenstown district cattle, Angora goat and wool sheep farmer Dr Pieter Prinsloo said hard-hit farmers were battling the effects of the drought while at the same time trying to rebuild their cattle herds.
He said the price of A Grade beef started to rise in December and had soared by 17% since then.
“We are expecting it to go up another 13% by this December, meaning that it will have gone up by 30% in a year,” said Prinsloo, who is national vice-chairman of the Red Meat Producers Organisation and an Agri Eastern Cape analyst.
He said the drought had badly affected the national beef herd, which has been reduced by at least half a million animals to less than 14 million heads in the past two years.
Herd sizes in the Eastern Cape were down to “a critical mass”, meaning bad news for consumers.
Prinsloo, who is also a practising dentist, said that at the start of the drought farmers sent more cattle to the abattoirs for “emergency slaughter”, driving meat prices down, but now that herd sizes were down, the lack of supply meant consumers were having to cough up more.
“The decrease in animals sent to slaughter has led to a price hike in beef of approximately 30%, which is unfortunately much higher than the year-on-year hike of 5% to 6%.”
He said it would take between 18 months and three years to restore herd numbers. He did not think prices would come down once the numbers had stabilised.
“In the last three years the beef industry stalled a little because the price of maize went up, so we have been under duress because of high feed costs, so we need this restoration .”
Adding to the drop in supply was the fact that many farmers had sold up and left due to financial pressure. For those who survived, price increases would help settle debt caused by the drought.
Prinsloo urged consumers to change their meat buying habits.
“Buy in bulk and if you don’t have freezer space, share with friends and family.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za