If you walked right past the meat aisle on your last trip to the grocery store, you’re not the only one. Beef is starting to feel like a luxury as prices stay at record highs, and there’s no end in sight for markups.
Ground beef reached a record price of $6.90 per pound in April, nearly a dollar more than last year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Beef steaks, which cost an average of $12.80 per pound in May, are up 16% from a year ago.
Prices have decreased slightly since April, according to the BLS, but don’t expect ground beef to return to $4 or $5 per pound anytime soon. In its most recent forecast, the USDA estimated that beef prices will climb 10.1% in 2026, though price inflation could vary between 2.8 to 18.3%.
It’s easy to point out supply-side issues as the reason for higher prices. Beef cattle inventory is at a 75-year low, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, due to persistent drought, high interest rates, and rising production costs. As of January, the cattle inventory is down 8.2 million animals or 8.6% from 2020, a year before a persistent and extreme drought began to shrink herd sizes. Cattle numbers are expected to stay down until at least 2028, according to the Farm Bureau.
