Source: MEATINGPLACE, 2/24/16

Cold storage stocks climbed for all three main species in January according to USDA, but chicken inventories are the biggest concern, analysts said in the Daily Livestock Report.

The amount of beef, pork, chicken and turkey in cold storage at the end of January was the largest cold storage inventory on record, up 8.2 percent from the previous year.

However, “the increase in chicken inventories is particularly worrisome,” the analysts wrote in the report, published by Steve Meyer & Len Steiner Inc.

Breast meat inventories climbed 16.8 percent from a year ago, and wing inventories are up 51.6 percent, though producers are current with leg quarter stocks thanks to dramatic price discounting in the fall, the analysts reported.

“If exports continue to struggle, heavy inventories imply packers/processors are struggling to move the additional supply through domestic trade,” they wrote.

Beef cold storage stocks were up 5.4 percent from a year ago and pork climbed 6.9 percent. The analysts were less concerned about the rise in pork inventories, which they attributed to stocking up on ribs for spring to meet strong demand.

The analysts also took a look at beef retail prices for January, concluding that declines have yet to make a significant dent in the price inflation of the last few years.

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