Market Trends with Tracy
In foodservice, making smart menu decisions can be the difference between open, and closed. Follow along each week as we try to make sense of the many links in our food service supply chain, and how that affects the food you serve. Saval Foodservice's own veteran purchaser, Tracy Anderson, takes you through the major market updates.
Saval Foodservice is a broadline foodservice distributor located in Elkridge, Maryland, and has been a family-owned & operated business since 1932. We serve the area's independent restaurants, caterers, delis, hotels, and other eateries. Our products range from fresh produce, seafood, custom-cut meat, groceries, beverages, our own line of Saval Deli delicatessen products, and cleaning supplies.
We created this podcast in 2020 to keep our customers informed of the suddenly volatile market. Market Trends with Tracy is written & recorded by Tracy Anderson. Produced & Edited by Deanna Segreti and Shelby Reister. For questions or inquiries about the show, email sfssocialmedia@savalfoods.com
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Episodes
241 episodes
Stubborn Steaks
BEEF We are in a post-Labor Day declining market. The exception is no one seems to have told strip loins and ribeyes. Pretty much everything in the beef complex is moving lower for next week, except ribeyes and strip loins. Demand is hol...
Did You Hear the Pork Market Crash?
BEEF Last week imports of live cattle from Mexico resumed from one port of entry in Arizona. That was “paused” on Tuesday this week for equipment malfunctions. Everyone involved emphasized this is not an animal issue but an equipme...
Beef Moving Up, Up, Up
BEEF Let's start with a little good news. On Monday, the border in Arizona was opened for beef cattle. Monday had 716 head presented for inspection. 692 were approved with 24 rejected. Similar numbers on Tuesday with 634 inspected, 588 a...
A Pricey Ride to Labor Day
BEEF This beef market is pushing higher still. I’m still expecting a market correction after Labor Day, but man, getting to Labor Day is not going to be cheap. Beef harvest continues in the same quantities we’ve seen for months, 517K hea...
The Block is Hot
BEEF: Last week’s harvest was 59K head. I thought the prior week of 512K was low, so let's take another step down, with packers keeping pressure on availability with less product available. This puts our year-to-date output down 8....
Hopeful Beef Outlook
BEEF: I’m going to start with the weekly beef harvest. Last week’s total was 512K head; the prior week was 528K head. I don’t recall this small a weekly harvest on a non-holiday week. Packers will continue to try and ti...
Good News in Beef
BEEF Let’s start with some really good news. For the first time since 2018 the US cattle herd increased by 200K head to 94.2 million head, this however is not the start of beef herd building we’ve been looking for. The increases are in d...
Chicken is the New Beef
BEEF The beef market is continuing lower this week though I do see some slowing in the declines. Production continues restrained with 525K harvested last week, down from 529k the week prior. We may see even lower production numbers this ...
The Pork Belly Race is On
BEEF The beef market continues its summer pull back. Overall market tone is moving lower. I expect we will see this through the end of the month; come August we’ll be starting to look at fall demand. Unbelievable, already talking about f...
Soy in Action
BEEF As expected, beef pricing for middle meats is moving lower. Strips, ribeyes and tenderloins all coming off a bit from pre-holiday highs. I expect we will see this continue right to the end of the month. Grinds on the other hand are ...
The Summer of the Pork Belly
BEEF Beef production last week was 537K head, up from 526K the week prior. We are still in that zone of keeping supplies tight to keep pricing up. The animals that are processed have been in the feed lots longer, growing larger; current ...
The Dog Days of Summer
BEEF We hit Independence Day next weekend and the start of the “dog days of summer." Once we get clear of the holiday I do expect we will see a market reset, especially on middle meats. I’m not looking for a crash, but I do expect we wil...
The Need for Beef
BEEF We’ll start again with the New World screwworm. We now have 6 confirmed cases in Texas and 1 in New Mexico. Affected animals are a dog, a goat and 5 cattle. While our border with Mexico has been closed for months now to live animals...
Pressure on the Herd
BEEF Let's start with the bad news. We’ve been expecting this to happen for several months, yesterday the USDA announced the discovery of the New World Screw Worm infecting a calf in La Pryor, Texas, about 50 miles north of the border. T...
Stay Ahead of Your Needs
BEEF I’ve been saying for weeks to stay ahead of your needs, and I’m going to reiterate, stay ahead of your needs, as demand does seem to be ticking up a bit. Weekly harvest is not moving up to help meet that demand. Last week’s harvest ...
Summer Grilling Had Me a Blast
BEEF We are rolling into the summer demand for things that go on the grill. The most common will be burgers, and I do think we will see burgers to continue higher every week, probably all the way to Independence Day. Production numbers c...
Pennies Up, Pennies Down
BEEF Beef is ready to move higher into the high demand summer season. Beef harvest however continues with lower production numbers, 527K head last week, 534K the week prior. We may see small increases too over the next few weeks but I’m ...
Bellies Off to the Races
Thanks for joining me today, let's look at a few markets heading into Mother’s Day weekend. Let's start as usual with beef. We’ve had a couple weeks of relatively stable pricing, and I think we’ve got another week, maybe two ...
Bellies Drop while Beef Corrects
Try to say "Avian Flu Front" five times fast, go ahead, give it a whirl. The beef market is continuing the market correction started last week. Middle meats were leading this market higher, and now they are leading th...
Tentative Good News for Beef
We are well into spring now and some things are shaking in the beef market. First good news, though the strike is not settled, the JBS workers are returning to work while negotiations continue. Good news, beef harvest increased to 533K st...
An Interesting Summer For Beef
Beef production continues to keep inventories tight and prices pushing higher. Beef harvest last week was 520K head, up a bit from the 503K the week prior but still not enough to fill the demand. Middle meats, those strips loins, te...
An Expensive Cinco De Mayo
Beef demand is not backing down, consumer demand for protein continues to increase even as our beef industry continues to contract. No doubt aided by the JBS strike, beef production was only 508K head last week and I expect we will see similar ...
Beef Continues to Climb
BEEF: I've been saying for a few weeks now it would not be a bad idea to keep well ahead of your needs. I’m doubling down on this as the reduced production we’ve seen this year is impacting product availability and pricing. Inventories w...