So the cattle guys aren’t getting their share of $5 pound ground beef? Who’s getting the money?
All the steps in the middle. In every market that has middlemen between the producers and the consumers the price goes up at least 100% every step. So the cattlemen sell to the slaughterhouses, which sell to the processors, which sell to the wholesalers, which sell to the retailers, which sell to the consumers. Boom boom boom. And the price jump is worse for things that can spoil, because you’re always losing inventory along the way. I remember when I was watching Deadliest Catch and the talked about how the crab fishermen were getting a buck a pound for crab that hits my grocery store at $14 a pound. The bottom of the chain always makes the least. Also the cattlemen don’t set the price, that’s set by the people that buy the cows, via the commodity market.
Who’s getting the money? Tyson, Cargill, JBS, Smithfield.