World’s top meat supplier envisions separate plant-based company

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/world-top-meat-supplier-envisions-100000499.html

• The world’s largest meat supplier, JBA SA, plans to set up a new global company focused solely on plant-based products.
• According to JBS’s Chief Executive Officer, Gilberto Tomazoni, traditional meat will become a luxury in the future and people will turn to cheaper vegetable-derived alternatives.
  • Additionally, the world’s population is expected to grow to 10 billion by 2050. With that substantial increase in population, our world will not be able to produce the amount of meat needed to satisfy the world’s protein needs, said Tomazoni.
• JBS entered the plant-based meat market in 2019. The meat giant already has a sizable footprint with about 57 percent of the plant-based burger market in Brazil.
  • JBS has 10 plant-based products in more than 3,000 U.S. stores under the OZO brand, which grew by 300 percent last year.
• Investment money has been flooding into alternative protein startups; just in 2020, a record $2.4 billion was raised to fund these startups.

Cattle stranded at sea for two months are likely dead or ‘suffering hell’

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/24/cattle-stranded-at-sea-for-two-months-are-likely-dead-or-suffering-hell

• Two massive livestock ships departed from different ports in Spain before Christmas to deliver cattle to Turkey, but each were refused entry due to claims that the cattle onboard were suffering from outbreaks of bluetongue.
  • The first ship, Karim Allah, is carrying 895 hd. of cattle. The second ship, Elbeik, is carrying 1,776 hd. of cattle.
• Despite bluetongue accusations, Spain’s government and the country’s largest association of beef producers, Asoprovac, say that the cattle do not originate from areas with bluetongue.
• Turkey originally agreed to take the cattle, but when the ships arrived they were rejected based on disease fears.
• Silvia Barquero, the director of Animal Equality Spain, believes that many animals onboard the ships are most likely already dead and any still alive are “suffering a real hell.”
• Both ships were scheduled for official veterinary inspections last week in Cyprus and Sardinia, but neither would approach the shore to allow vets onboard.
• A spokesperson for Spain’s agriculture ministry, described the ships’ plight as a “failed operation by a Spanish exporter, who was going to sell the animals in Turkey, then tried unsuccessfully to sell them in Libya.”
• Maria Boada Sana, a vet with NGO Animal Welfare Foundation, said that the Karim Allah has not requested feed, which probably means most of the cattle onboard are dead.
• Currently, Karim Allah is anchored just outside the Spanish port of Cartagena and Elbeik continues to sit at anchor in Turkish waters off the coast of Cyprus.

Profit tracker: Cattle steady, hog margins solid (week ending February 19)

https://www.drovers.com/news/beef-production/profit-tracker-cattle-steady-hog-margins-solid

• As of the week ending February 19, cattle feeding margins were steady at an average of $83/hd., down $2/hd. compared to the week before according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker.
  • For the same week one year ago, cattle feeders saw average profits of $162/hd.
• Cash cattle prices averaged $114.09/cwt., $0.25/cwt. higher than the week before.
  • Last year at this same time, cash cattle prices averaged $5 higher at $119/cwt.
• Packer margins increased $22/hd. to an average of $389/hd.
  • This resulted in a packer/feeder margin spread of $306/hd., up $24 from the previous week’s $282/hd.
• Beef packer capacity utilization was estimated at 76.1 percent, down 7.7 percent from the previous week, with an estimated 552,000 head slaughtered.
  • For the same week in 2020, packer capacity was estimated at 86.3 percent with a weekly kill of 625,629 head.
• So far for 2021, carcass weights are running 16 lbs. heavier at 846 lbs.
• Beef packers continue to hold the leverage in the current market, as cash cattle prices are $5/cwt. lower than the same week last year, yet the beef cutout price is $28/cwt. higher.
  • One year ago packers saw profits of $69/hd. while cattle feeding margins were $162/hd.

Boxed beef prices

www.nationalbeefwire.com

• Choice boxed beef: $240.39 (-0.36)
• Select boxed beef: $228.79 (-1.00)