News and Events
06 Apr 2026
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Beef Market Outlook (Baptiste Buczinski)
Welcome to the Beef Market Outlook March 2026, your monthly update on global beef markets and price trends. This edition analyses February 2026 data, covering the latest shifts in beef production, cattle prices, and export dynamics across Europe, Brazil, China, and the United States. With clear, data-driven insights, we highlight the key factors influencing global supply and demand, trade flows, and overall market profitability.
What were the trends in global beef prices last month?
In February, European male prices continued increasing, with US prices high but under EU level. Brazilian prices increased as World demand is strong, while chinese prices stayed underneath.
How did beef prices and production perform in Europe?
In February, male carcass prices rose by 1% compared with the previous month and stood 39% higher than in 2025. Early March saw a slight decline as consumption eased. The reduction in slaughtering is expected to persist in 2026, given that the population of 1–2-year-old males was already down by 1% year-on-year in December 2025.
What factors are affecting beef prices in the United States?
Steer prices climbed 4% from the previous month and reached a record high, standing 20% above 2025 levels. In early March, however, beef prices dipped by $7/cwt as meatpackers sought to restore margins. February 2026 marked the slowest daily slaughter pace in a decade, as packers reduced slaughter days to boost daily efficiency. On March 16, a union representing 3,800 workers at the JBS plant in Colorado launched a strike demanding higher wages—an unprecedented event in the U.S. meat industry in the past 40 years. The plant halted slaughtering a week earlier to finish processing existing products, and JBS announced it would shift production to other facilities.
How is the beef market evolving in Brazil?
Brazilian beef prices surged in February, rising 10% from the previous month and 19% above 2025 levels in U.S. dollars (+7% year-on-year in Reals). Strong global demand is supporting prices. Exports reached 627,000 tons cwe in January–February 2026, up 25% from the 2025 record. China and Hong Kong imported 299,000 tons cwe (+21% year-on-year) despite China’s new cap on tariff-free imports at roughly half of last year’s volume. Brazil also diversified its markets: shipments to the U.S. rose 51%, exports to other North American countries increased 55%, volumes to the Middle East grew 22%, and exports to Egypt more than doubled. However, the conflict in the Middle East may disrupt regional shipping routes.
What is happening with beef prices and imports in China?
China beef prices rose by 2% in a month and were 25% above early 2025 prices, slightly above 2024. Prices are lower than Brazilian prices since November, as massive meat imports continued in February from Brazil (+12% to China-Hong Kong). China’s meat furbishers sent 261.000 tons cwe of beef to China in January (stable y-o-y). China released its safeguard measures, with a 55% tariff on extra beef import volumes above a total world quota of 2.7 million tons yearly.
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