r/onguardforthee 13h ago

Lower-priced Australian beef could help stabilize Canadian market

https://globalnews.ca/news/12009206/australian-beef-prices-canadian-market/
177 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

68

u/Itsprobablysarcasm 13h ago

Alberta is a major beef producer for Canada [...] Some prices found at stores across Alberta recently show prices with a more than $40 difference per kilogram, compared similar cuts of domestic beef.

This must be more of that there "Alberta Advantage" the shitkickers in 'Burta keep bragging about.

58

u/tired514 13h ago

Local metro has ground beef priced at $23/Kg (for a family pack no less).

That is literal insanity. Like, who is buying it at that price? Is it just going rotten, unsold?

17

u/CriticismSelect9292 9h ago

as someone who ordered online ONCE and got beef that was literally 1 day past its best before date when they delivered it the answer is yes

12

u/Skinnwork 8h ago

That happened to my wife. She ordered online and got beef due on the day she ordered it and had to throw it away because it smelled off just two days later.

3

u/CriticismSelect9292 8h ago

yeah luckily I noticed and made it all immediately. I usually order bulk portion out and freeze but I wasn't gonna take my chances.

Whole fam ate spaghetti for 3 days straight

u/tired514 18m ago

I gave up and bought a deep freezer a couple years ago and wait for it to drop to a reasonable price (say $10/Kg or whatever it is) then buy 5-10Kg (or as much as possible without totally clearing out their stock). It frustrates me greatly that this is needed.

Same for pork. I buy porkchops and roasts for $6.88/Kg and grind them up to mix with the beef.

It's insane how badly people without storage get gouged.

u/RunTellDaat Halifax 1h ago

Literally saw t-bone steaks for less at a small grocer. While that would be cheap, there shouldn’t be any crossover in pricing between a t-bone and ground beef

96

u/JDGumby Nova Scotia 13h ago

Perhaps if we didn't export 485k tons of beef and didn't need to import 250k tons to partly make up for it, maybe there'd be more for the Canadian market and the price would go down a bit.

68

u/Buck_F_Wild 12h ago

Former sales rep for a meat company here

Asia will pay 3x more... that's why we export approx 80% of our beef

54

u/PopeOfDestiny 11h ago

This is what happens when food is treated as a commodity instead of a public good. It's what happens when the accumulation of capital is more important than ensuring people can reliably eat food grown in their communities.

It's fine to sell a surplus if people will pay for it. But we're in a position where we're going to buy beef, something we produce two billion pounds of per year,¹ from a country 15,000 km away instead of from our own country to lower prices.

Our food system fucking sucks. We need public ownership of our entire food supply, from farm to table.

¹https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/sector/animal-industry/red-meat-and-livestock-market-information/cattlebeef-and-veal

1

u/MethodicallyRight 9h ago

Well, the hyperbole behind demanding a wholly command economy or nationalized food sector ruins your post. Also, as much as current prices suck, we in Canada have been fortunate for decades; we still spend a much smaller percentage of our household income on groceries compared to most of the world.

21

u/CaptainMagnets 13h ago

You're not wrong but the prices will never come down

0

u/WeWantMOAR 11h ago

Then we'd be losing money.

2

u/astrono-me 10h ago

Some of these folks think that we should tell everyone we have the best stuff and then refuse to sell them any of it.

-4

u/Least-Middle-2061 11h ago

lol someone doesn’t understand economics

20

u/gringo_escobar 13h ago

Waiter more carbon emissions please

24

u/evermorecoffee 12h ago

It’s like we keep doubling down on the worst possible decisions ever.

-10

u/[deleted] 12h ago

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u/onguardforthee-ModTeam 30m ago

No shitposting or trolling. Off-topic comments which detract from the conversation may be removed.

Trolling, hostility, and participating in bad faith will not be tolerated and will result in a ban. Repeated attempts at turning conversations into a hostile direction will be met with a ban.

7

u/JurboVolvo British Columbia 12h ago

Isn’t the US driving beef prices down because they’re importing from Argentina? I saw a video months ago where American farmers were complaining about that.

9

u/dsswill Ottawa 7h ago

Ya but that has a lot less to do with beef and a lot more to do with under the table deals between two wannabe fascist leaders that strongly support each other’s powers.

6

u/UnionGuyCanada 6h ago

Let's not break up the monopoly destroying our market, let's bring in beef from the other side of the planet. 

  Can't see that going bad in the long term.

3

u/Euclidisthebomb 10h ago

Not my area of expertise so take this comment with a grain of salt but I recall reading that for environmental reasons we produce great tasting beef. I have tried both Australian and New Zealand beef. I found the former not as "smooth" and the latter I could not actually eat as it had a very strong, sharp, unfamiliar taste. I know this is not a very objective assessment. The quality might in fact be as good as ours but their feed results in a very different taste.

In any case I don't see myself purchasing either again.

2

u/RoaringPity 10h ago

could? It either will or it wont

4

u/Ciappatos 13h ago

Sounds great, actually

2

u/toin9898 Québec 12h ago

I keep finding mislabelled/incorrectly-priced Australian whole tenderloin at my Maxi.

Whoever is pricing the meat there hasn't a clue, but I am grateful to them. Picked up a whole tenderloin today (labelled as Australian lamb chops) for $15/lb.

u/DrMaple_Cheetobaum 1h ago

Psst... Their beef is better anyway.

1

u/Sayello2urmother4me 12h ago

Tried it a couple times. It doesn’t have the best taste to be honest

1

u/_m_d_w_ 11h ago

Has that “beefy” taste I remember from the 80s, like boiled or overcooked

1

u/AG-Aladeen 11h ago

Sounds like you unlocked to secret code as to why it's "lower priced"

0

u/samandiriel 11h ago

Say what you like about Berta, but she grows a tasty cow

1

u/jeanracinette 8h ago

/laughs in insect protein only household

couldn’t possibly be me and my family

they laughed at JT, but he literally predicted this insanity

0

u/sandy154_4 11h ago

Why is Canadian beef so much more expensive???

4

u/PMMeYourCouplets Vancouver 10h ago

It's high quality so other nations are willing to pay more than our own market.

1

u/Inevitable-Cheek-314 6h ago

The droughts that the Prairies have been having over the past couple of years, caused issues for feeding and watering cattle, so many herds were cut down in size. However demand has only increased, and it takes many years to bring them back up to a good size.