2009 Retail Demand
Posted by Chuck – January 29th, 2010
It’s Friday of convention week and that means lots of committee work going on. However, there has already been a lot of committee work. Take the Evaluation Advisory Committee which was lead by David Bateman, past CBB Chairman (left).
The committee received a presentation from Dr. James Mintert, Purdue University on what happened to domestic beef demand at retail in 2009 and what the drivers were. I spoke with him about his remarks. He says that not surprisingly demand weakened by about 3 percent from a year earlier and part of that was due to a weak economy. Additionally, he says consumers started saving more in reaction to losses in their investments. In the short run he says that takes away from consumption. Another factor was consumer concern over safety due to some of the recalls that took place. Looking ahead he says that the economy is showing signs of improving with some growth in disposable personal income but he hasn’t seen consumer savings rates change yet.
Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album
You can listen to or download (mp3) my interview with James here:
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