ORLANDO — Market outlook presentations were held at the 2025 Annual Meat Conference, with several experts weighing in on the crucial subjects meat businesses will focus on throughout the year.

Panelists who covered beef, pork, and poultry markets took questions after their morning presentation to provide more analysis to the attendees.

The important issue discussed throughout the conference was the impact tariffs would or could have on markets when they go into effect on April 2.

Lee Schulz, chief economist of Ever.Ag, summarized in his presentation that despite any tariffs happening in the near future, meat products will still flow throughout North America. 

Schulz pointed out that the full impact of the tariffs are hard to predict from a market standpoint without seeing the final outcome.

“As we all try to analyze and understand the impacts of these tariffs, we haven’t experienced it yet,” Schulz said of tariffs, “these markets will still function and those impacts might be different than we anticipate.”

One example he used was fresh hams from the United States that are sent to Mexico and how the demand will continue regardless of tariffs.

“They have other potential partners and customers, but they don’t necessarily send the volume, the consistency with quality that we do,” Schulz said.

Randy Blach, chief executive officer of CattleFax, believes the demand for beef products will remain worldwide even with tariffs staying on the radar.

“Even though this will be disruptive for a little bit, I think you’re still going to see markets that are going to demand our high-quality grain fed beef that we produce in our marketplace,” Blach said on tariff impact for beef. “There are consumers all over the globe with middle-class incomes and higher that are still going to demand US beef.”

Blach noted that the United States exports around 3 billion lbs of beef and beef byproducts on an annual basis.

During his presentation, Blach provided details on how retail meat prices are expected to increase in 2025, which would be led by beef; still, the industry should look for some demand erosion that should be expected.

In his summary, Blach also cautioned that the beef supply would be tight from 2025-2027 with a risk of losing packing capacity. Even with that continued trend, beef’s total supply per capita will remain sufficient over the next two to three years.

He pointed out that the beef demand growth also came from Choice products or higher that were in demand by consumers.

Christine McCracken, executive director and senior protein analyst at Rabobank, presented on the poultry and feed outlook for the rest of the year.

McCracken explained that poultry industry growth would remain limited even with favorable margins. 

Domestic demand remains strong in both the foodservice and retail sectors backed by dark meat growth which limits the export exposure for poultry. 

When talking turkey at the discussion, McCracken stated consumer preferences are shifting a bit.

She noted the ground turkey developments remain a good story to tell consumers.

“The industry is doing a good job pivoting and to create some new products that can meet the consumer where they are today,” she said.

Another area explained by McCracken and Schulz was the role that US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors play in the food system with regard to how tariffs or other factors in animal agriculture end up.

“From my standpoint, where I get the most calls from clients of the bank is really around making sure we can keep the guys at the plant, keep them at the border, keep that product flowing,” McCracken said of the USDA inspectors and the meat supply chain. “I think a lot of the food safety and inspection functions are going to be critical to keep those markets operating efficiently.”