Opinion – Shuttle: Meats start year with price drop for consumers

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Meats start the year with less pressure on retail than they had last year. The fall is due to the loss of wholesale prices, after retreats in the values ​​of negotiations in the field.

But not only that. January is a period of greater difficulties for consumers to manage their finances. Taxes, school fees and other expenses typical of this period of the year reduce purchasing power, says Luiz Henrique Alves de Melo, an analyst at Cepea (Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics).

According to Fipe (Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas), the price of chicken meat fell 1.3% in the last 30 days at retail and should present a greater retraction in the coming weeks, since the drop in the wholesale market has already reached 7.62% in the two weeks of January for frozen chicken, as per Cepea follow-up.

The downward or upward trend in prices takes longer to appear in Fipe’s data, since the institution always compares the average values ​​of the last four weeks with those of the immediately preceding four.

The pork has even greater retreat than that of chicken this year. Monitoring by Cepea shows a 17.1% deceleration in the price of pork on the farm, when comparing the current price with that of the end of December.

This fall in the field also reaches consumers. A month ago, Fipe pointed to an average high of 2.33% in average pork prices in supermarkets. In the release of this week’s index, there is already stability.

Beef is also already showing signs of a drop in retail, according to Fipe, reflecting the retraction in the field. The arroba of fat cattle, which was R$ 340 a year ago, dropped to R$ 300 in June and is currently worth R$ 287, shows Cepea.

In this downward trend of wholesale protein prices, beef and pork lose more competitiveness, which have a smaller movement of retraction than that of chicken meat, says the Cepea analyst.

For Melo, it is difficult to estimate a market trend for the coming months. It will depend on the movement of slaughter, consumer income, exports and other factors.

According to the most recent report by Secex (Secretary of Foreign Trade), exports of “in natura” meat in January of this year are more heated than those of the same month of 2022.

In this period, the external sale of chicken meat increased by 28%; beef, 18%; swine, 8%.

The foreign market has been a guide for supply and domestic prices. The export prices of chicken and pork this year still exceed those of January 2022. Beef, however, retreats 7%, according to Secex.

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