Lean Times For Steak Lovers: Meat Prices Get Tough

Meat lovers, get ready to pay up at the supermarket. The worst drought in half a century has taken a toll on this year's corn and wheat crops, raising the cost of feeding cattle and hogs.

Fresh beef's retail value jumped to an average of $4.72 a pound in July, a second straight price record, the Agriculture Department said last week. The Labor Department attributed more than half the gain in the wholesale cost of food seen in July's producer-price index to a 3.8% rise in prices of beef and veal.

The chewing may only get tougher. Karen Short, food retail analyst at BMO Capital Markets, expects a low-teen percentage rise in the price of beef, chicken and pork at supermarkets in 2013. "It's one big daisy chain when it comes to corn [prices] and temperatures," she says.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: Barron's