Chicago - Active beef and pork sales were reported during the three-day U.S. Memorial Day weekend, and some wholesalers were restocking beef and pork at lower prices early Tuesday, supermarket and wholesale meat dealers said.
“It seems like sales were excellent,” said Jim Porzenski, corporate director of meat procurement at Supervalu Inc.
Porzenksi said it was too early to accurately assess weekend meat sales, but a few of the supermarket's regional offices had indicated healthy weekend meat sales.
Historically, Memorial Day holiday meat sales are the largest of the year for supermarkets as consumers buy steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, pork steaks, and other cookout meat items.
Kevin Bost, meat analyst for the food distributer Topco, said orders early in the week indicated weekend meat sales were good, but perhaps down slightly from the previous weekend.
“It appears to be fairly decent,” he said of Memorial Day holiday sales. “We had more fill-in business.”
Bost also noted that meat packers had lowered beef and pork prices earlier in the week.
“It sure looks like we will see some down money on the cutout,” Bost said of the beef.
Pork loins and butts sales were active at lower prices as supermarkets stocked after resisting pork purchases recently, he said. A recent sharp jump in wholesale pork prices had curbed supermarket pork purchases, but with lower prices supermarkets were buying it again.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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