BEEF PRICES PUT BARBIES AT STAKE
Families’ beef with price rise
THE Aussie barbecue is being threatened by high beef prices dragging on household budgets.
Australia’s beef cattle herd is now at a 20-year low, contributing to higher prices at the checkout.
The price of mince has doubled during the past two years to more than $10 a kilogram and in June, eye-fillet steaks were averaging more than $50 a kilogram.
Cheaper cuts, such as beef cheeks, shanks and even offal, have also been going up.
Butchers say families are turning to cheaper cuts of meat or abandoning beef altogether, because of increasing prices.
Andrew Loveday, of Loveday’s Quality Meats in Burleigh, said beef had been losing popularity with customers for at least a year because of the cost.
“Certainly sausages are a favourite for a barbecue and they’ve probably maintained a pretty affordable price over the years, which you can’t say for a lot of other cuts of meat,” Mr Loveday said.
“We’ve been having good sales with all our meat except beef because it’s just so expensive.
Queensland senator Matt Canavan, who lives in Australia’s beef cattle, Rockhamp- ton, said he wanted to help mums and dads keep Aussie steak on the menu at home and on the barbecue.
He said one of the best ways to help families reduce the grocery bill was to help farmers.
“That’s why we want to develop the north and build more dams,’’ Senator Canavan said.
“We need to save the Aussie barbecue. This is a real barbecue stopper.”
A Meat and Livestock Australia spokesman said Australia had faced higher prices during the past 12 months.
The spokesman said all things considered, it was unlikely that Australian cattle prices would return to pre-2013 levels but rather establish a new level somewhere between existing longterm averages and current record highs.
Gold Coast father of two Craig Coffey said the days of having a barbie in his Mermaid Waters backyard every Sunday were over, with crazy meat prices proving too much for his plate.