Posted on 08/21/2026 7:59:27 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
President Donald Trump on Friday morning said the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported over the next three months without being subject to out-of-quota tariffs.
Trump also said, “We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.”
The president’s Truth Social post announcing the move did not say which companies had made those commitments, which he said came “as we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers.”
Trump did not say who he had reached a deal with on the import waivers, or which importers have committed to selling ground beef at below-market prices as a result of the tariff relief.
CNBC has requested comment from White House, major U.S. beef suppliers, and from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association about Trump’s announcement.
The U.S. imposes tariffs on imported beef beyond a certain quota limit for individual countries.
A report in May from the American Farm Bureau Federation noted that “imports entering under quota generally face a tariff of just 4.4 cents per kilogram, while imports above quota face a 26.4% tariff.”
“For beef valued around $7 per kilogram, that difference can exceed $1.80 per kilogram in tariff costs,” the report said.
Beef prices in the U.S have soared in 2026 due to a reduction in the nation’s cattle herd from years of drought, high feed costs and herd liquidation.
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“Today, I concluded a deal to substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families,” Trump said in his post.
“This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again,” he said.
Some liberal schmuck will buy it all and make the “Largest Cheeseburger Ever”. It will be on the news.
Beef is seriously overpriced due to the cut of herds. We don’t have to be a slave to over priced ANYTHING when there are over options.
It’s an election year stunt that hopefully lowers the price of beef on election day. The day after the election, the tariffs can go back in place.
Yesterday, for the first time, I went to a local butcher and got: 20 pounds ground chuck, 20 pounds of sirloin and New York strips, and a couple of 2 pound roasts, 44 pounds in all, for $434 including tax and credit card fee. Still trying to figure out if that was a good deal or not.
The “experts” were telling us since the 1980s that beef was bad for you. What did the ranchers do? Reduce herds, sell property, etc. It takes time to rebuild herds.
You must have a couple of good quality deep freezers.
It’s a good deal if the consumer is prepared to buy in large quantities as you did. Everything is probably already labeled with type of cut, date of packaging and due dates.
Forget ground beef! It goes on sale for $4/pound. I’d like to be able to buy a pot roast once in a while for less than $10 a pound!
Beef consumption has been steady for a quarter century.
Yes, Wheeler Wagyu. My family has bought over 200 lbs of their ground beef. It tastes so good, I don’t even put any seasoning on it when I make hamburger patties.
For wholes or halves, I love MTXbeef.com out of Mason,TX. Great folks. I was hosting a cookout for some Vets returning from deployment in the M.E, and when they found out why I had bought it, they refunded my costs, and gave me a generous gift certificate.
Met them during Covid shutdowns. They mostly sold to restaurants and steakhouses. That really hurt, and they started selling to the public, and online.
Since then, commercial business is back. They built their own processing plant, and have delivery trucks, and also some retail vendors.
I love that they offer custom cuts on their halves and wholes. Knowing where your beef comes from is important to me.
Thanks for the info! I’m excited to try them.
And, what a nice gift from MTXBeef!! Very generous.
Remember the Depression of 94 years ago MEAT was the cheapest thing to eat! So FDR decided to get the price of meat up Up UP by buying millions of cattle and hogs, shooting and burying the meat to create a shortage.
One farmer, forced to sell his cattle to the Government said to the Agri agent, “You just wait! in ten years you will wish you had all that meat back!”
Ten years later that same Agri agent was begging farmers to increase meat and pork production for the War Effort.
Bandaid for the midterms.
At this point I would eat ground kangaroo if I could get it for less than the current price of beef.
“You must have a couple of good quality deep freezers.”
Forty four pounds is not as much meat as you might think. It took up only a shelf and a half in my normal sized kitchen refrigerator/freezer. Plenty of room left over.
Oh. All that fit right in, great! I forget how dense a small amount of raw meat can be. I was thinking about big, flat T-Boned Steaks, bone still in: half the size of an LP record disk.
MTXbeef.com Just looked at their site - most items sold out. reasonable prices, don’t know about shipping costs
let it be Argentine beef!
—
That’s the trouble - the ground beef could be shipped from there, but is no guarantee the cattle were raised there - could be from anywhere in the world, full of all sorts of antibiotics etc.
From grok:
US per capita consumption of beef has declined significantly over the last 40 years, while overall dairy consumption (on a milk-equivalent basis) has risen, driven by shifts away from fluid milk toward cheese, yogurt, and other products.
Data come primarily from the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System and Dairy Data series (retail weight for beef; milk-fat equivalent for total dairy). These measure disappearance (supply available for consumption) and serve as the standard proxy for per capita intake. Figures are approximate annual averages and can vary slightly by exact series (retail vs. boneless/edible weight) or revisions.
Peak and long-term decline: Beef consumption peaked in the mid-1970s (around 80–90+ lbs per person retail weight). It has fallen steadily since.
Key figures (retail weight basis):
~1970: 84.6 lbs
~1990: 67.7 lbs
~2010: 59.6 lbs
Recent years (2022–2024): roughly 57–59 lbs (e.g., ~59.1 lbs in some 2022/2024 estimates; slight year-to-year variation).
Trend summary: Roughly a 25–30% decline from the mid-1980s levels, with more stability (and occasional minor rebounds) in the 2010s–2020s. Poultry (especially chicken) has overtaken beef as the leading meat. Total meat consumption has risen due to poultry growth.
These are national averages. Actual intake varies by age, income, region, and diet preferences. Loss-adjusted data (accounting for waste) show lower “actual consumption” figures.
Trends reflect changing tastes (e.g., health perceptions of red meat vs. poultry, rise of cheese in diets, plant-based alternatives for fluid milk), prices, production efficiency, and foodservice demand.
For the most precise year-by-year tables, consult the USDA ERS Livestock and Meat Domestic Data and Dairy Products: Per Capita Consumption datasets, which are updated regularly.
Sources: USDA ERS reports and summaries covering 1970s–2024/2025 data.
What’s interesting is that during COVID, farmers asphyxiated tens of thousands of hogs due to not having a market but they’re prolific breeders and recovered well. Same with chickens, notice no one is complaining about egg prices anymore?
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