For November 2023, Circana research finds that total fresh meat sales totaled $4.8 billion, with beef accounting for nearly half of all sales dollars at $2.3 billion. Total dollar sales of fresh meat were down slightly (-0.7%) for November 2023, with pounds sold down -3.4% compared with November 2022 pounds sold, according to Circana. While fresh beef saw pounds sold for November 2023 down -3.9% compared to year-ago levels, the price pound was up 4.6%.

For the 52-week period ending Nov. 26, 2023, total fresh meat sales hit $57.8 billion, with fresh beef accounting for $31 billion of that total. Dollar sales growth for fresh beef performed slightly better than the overall fresh meat category year over year for the time period, with the total fresh meat category up 0.2% and fresh beef up 0.9%.

Dollar sales of ground beef were up 8.4% from year-ago levels, at $914 million, as pounds sold decreased -1.7%. For the 52-week period ending Nov. 26, 2023, ground beef sales totaled $12.5 billion, with pounds sold flat versus a year ago and dollar sales up 3.1%.

On the production side, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts 2024 U.S. beef production will approach 26 billion pounds, trailing both pork (at an estimated 27.7 billion pounds) and chicken (46.6 billion pounds).

USDA predicts U.S. beef and veal exports for 2024 will contract to 2.85 billion pounds, down from its 2023 forecast of more than 3 billion pounds. USDA predicts U.S. beef and veal imports for 2024 will increase to 3.7 billion pounds, up slightly from its 2023 forecast of 3.66 billion pounds.