Cold Storage Report offers no major surprises

Beef stocks totaled 435.3 million lbs. at the end of September, up 20.4 million lbs. (4.9%) versus August. The five-year average increase in beef stocks during September was 16.1 million pounds. Beef inventories dropped 27.7 million lbs. (6.0%) from September 2020 levels and were 55.5 million lbs. (11.3%) below the five-year average.

Pork stocks totaled 466.4 million lbs., up 12.1 million lbs. (2.7%) from August. The five-year average increase during the month was 15.3 million pounds. Pork stocks rose 791,000 lbs. (0.2%) versus year-ago levels – the first year-over-year increase since March 2020. But frozen pork inventories fell 116.5 million lbs. (20.0%) versus the five-year average.

Total poultry stocks came in at 1.154 billion lbs., up 9.5 million lbs. (0.8%) versus August but down 240.6 million lbs. (17.2%) from year-ago. Chicken breast meat inventories plunged 59.0 million lbs. (27.0%) from last year’s record levels amid sharply higher restaurant usage.