Corned Beef

GlynD

Naffito wrote: »

Glynd, you've made me laugh so hard I don't even care that corned beef is expensive anymore!

All part of the service

sb44

GlynD wrote: »

The lesser of two weevils then?

sb44

GlynD wrote: »

It was a ship's biscuit from ye olden days and it was as hard as the oak timbers. In the army until around Y2K there was quite a hard dry biscuit in the ration packs which was referred to as hard tack.

NKLK

Forgot to say, for tinned tuna I go to home bargains, 99p for 3 tins of tuna flakes. Lovely!

Clowance

Does anyone else think the hard tack picture looks like a cream cracker? Will be searching them for weevils now!

ss3n08

Hang on, does 'wormy' mean that the biscuits had worms in? Blimey, I won't ever complain if I find a hair in my food again.

x.x.x.

I work on the deli in a supermarket, and a couple of months back we had an email come through saying there is a worldwide shortage of corned beef, and that the price will increase until such a time when there isnt one... We thought it was just an excuse to wack the price up, but looking at this thread, maybe it might be true lol

geordie_joe

x.x.x. wrote: »

I work on the deli in a supermarket, and a couple of months back we had an email come through saying there is a worldwide shortage of corned beef, and that the price will increase until such a time when there isnt one... We thought it was just an excuse to wack the price up, but looking at this thread, maybe it might be true lol

We discussed this a while ago, or maybe it was on the green board.

Someone said the price of corned beef was going up because the Argies were cutting back production. However, they don't supply much corned beef to anyone, not since the 60's.

Brazil, on the other hand supplies most of the corned beef to the Uk, and europe, and they are producing corned beef like it's going out of fashion.

The EU changed some law to restrict the amount of beef Brazil can export to the eu, but it only applied to fresh beef, not processed beef.

So the Brazilians retaliated by processing all it's beef. By processing I mean putting it in tins. They built a lot more corned beef canning factories, even reopened the old Frey Bentos factory, and chucked everything they had into turning their beef into corned beef.

So, there is no shortage of corned beef, in fact there is a lot more corned beef being produced now than there ever has been.

DaveB2

Brazil produces virtually all the corned beef for the UK market.

Prices are at an all time high because...

a) The £ exchange rate is awful, the Brazillian manufacturers need paying in their own currency so it costs us more £'s.
b) The Brazilian economy is growing more affluent so there is an increased demand for meat. The corned beef manufacturers are basically integrated manufacturers from cattle to final processing. When you can sell fresh meat more profitably to the local market there isn't an incentive to turn out canned products at rock bottom prices. Increased demand for fresh meat is keeping wholesale meat prices high and driving up processed costs.
c) The 'affluence' argument also holds true for other areas of the world who can also now afford to import increasing quantities of meat products. Increased demand without a corresponding increase insupply = higher prices.
d) The EU recently imposed a new testing regime on importation of canned meat in order to detect for residual animal pharmaceuticals. The testing regime was imposed at short notice and only one or two labs in Brazil had the necessary accreditation. This led to a backlog of testing and also a backlog of orders. It was probably a lot easier for Brazillian suppliers to supply other markets which didn't have this testing regime than the UK/EU -especially if they could get the same price for their product.
d) Argentina used to export but not at the moment. Basically their government has invoked subsidies for supplying the home market and penalties for exports. Helps to keep the local population happy, but doesn't help competition and keep UK prices low!

Many importers of corned beef fix contracts well in advance or buy in large stocks. If these were bought during a period of low prices then they can afford to sell it at a correspondingly lower price on shelf. However, eventually these stocks run out and shelf prices eventually have to mirror movements in the commodity price. Sometimes you see products removed completely once the stock has run out and another brand/own label takes its place. The Supermarkets see corned beef as a commodity with little brand loyalty and can switch in and out depending on which supplier or brand is in a position to offer the best deal at the time.

[Deleted User]

My late OH used to call it Typhoid sarnies as years ago there was an outbreak in Switzerland I think blamed on Corned beef.I can remember when pubs used to have very hard biscuits on the counters given away free to customers .When my late brother was courting back in the 1950s I used to hang about outside the pub where he went with his then girlfriend and he would come out with these and give them to me and my brother, they were as hard as bullets