Cattle futures jump amid beef supply concerns - CME
June lean hog futures slipped
3 April 2025
2 minute read
By: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle futures set contract highs on Wednesday as expectations for US President Donald Trump's new tariffs on imports fuelled concerns that lofty beef prices may climb higher, Reuters reported, citing analysts.
The US is a net importer of beef and expanded imports in recent years to boost supplies as domestic cattle inventories shrank to their lowest levels in more than seven decades.
Restaurants and retailers increasingly rely on beef from countries including Australia and New Zealand to mix with US supplies to make hamburger meat.
Trump highlighted beef imports from Australia in a White House speech about reciprocal tariffs.
"They ban American beef, yet we imported $3 billion of Australian beef from them just last year alone," he said. "They won't take any of our beef. They don't want it because they don't want it to affect their farmers."
Trump said he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and higher duties on dozens of the country's biggest trading partners.
Before his speech, CME June live cattle futures closed up 1.975 cents at 207.4 cents per pound. The contract earlier set a high at 207.725 cents.
CME May feeder cattle rose 0.775 cents to 287.925 cents per pound, and deferred futures set contract highs.
In the pork market, CME June lean hog futures slipped 0.5 cents to end at 96.525 cents per pound.
"Today, of course, most attention will be on politics and trade," US-based commodity broker StoneX said. "The cattle/beef complex is about the one ag market where we import more product than we export."
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said he "won't compromise" on three areas likely to be targeted by US tariffs, after they were listed in a US Trade Representative report on foreign trade barriers.
The report included Australia's ban on US fresh beef products, in place since bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called mad cow disease, was detected in US cattle in 2003.
The US imported 392,892 metric tons of Australian beef in 2024, up 66% from the previous year and 173% from 2022, according to US government data.
