Transcript
Indiana University Representative (0:00)
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Bloomberg Audio Studios Announcer (0:29)
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio news.
Podcast Host (0:40)
All right, we're just two days out from Thanksgiving, but forget the turkey because Americans can't get enough of beef. The US Is the world's largest consumer of red meat, but inflation, tariff pressures, and shrinking cattle herds have sent prices soaring. Despite this, though, our next guest says that American demand for beef remains. Song I'm pleased to welcome Nate Rempe. He is the CEO of Omaha Steaks. Nate, great to have you with us. And we just had that chart up of beef prices. Talk us through what you're seeing in your seat when it comes to the cost of your steaks.
Nate Rempe (1:13)
Yeah, I mean, the demand is really high and the supply is low. So my business focuses a lot on the power that we built over 100 years to leverage flash freezing, where we can buy in the commodities market. When we see little breaks in the market, build that inventory and then leverage, leverage, you know, some of our supply chain leverage, our processes and automations to hold our prices. Pretty static. In fact, America is going to be, I think, pleasantly surprised when they come to Omaha steaks.com they're going to find that our, our premier gift package, that perfect gift, is going to be 89.99 again this year. And I told my teams internally this is one of the great moments for Omaha stakes to really step forward and shine and leverage and flex our muscle. That is that vertical inte and that ability to play that commodities market. But, you know, watching the beef market now has been just fascinating from my seat, seeing what it's doing, particularly in grocery stores across the country.
Podcast Host (2:14)
Well, talking about the beef market more broadly, outside of just your business, I mean, when it comes to matching supply and demand, how does the US Necessarily boost supply? Or is it just inevitable that you're going to have to try to source beef from overseas?
Nate Rempe (2:29)
Yeah, I think there's, there's a lot to be learned about the supply chain of beef in America. Only about 13 to 14% of the total beef consumed in America is imported. And of that percentage, about 80% is lean trim that goes into ground beef. So in particular, you know, portions, steaks and roasts, and that largely come from the domestic supply and, you know, Those percentages really give you a sense for how important building the domestic herd is to meeting the demand of America's desire for red meat. And so, you know, imports are an important part of the overall picture, but it's not the solve, it's not the silver bullet to addressing the cost of beef in America. Rebuilding that herd is the inevitable requirement for bringing supply up. And that is not a fast process, Katie. That's, you know, that's a six to eight year process to kind of get back to what would be considered a surplus in the size of the herd.