AFBF: Increased beef imports have not lowered prices for consumers | An official publication of Michigan Farm Bureau

Policies intended to increase imports under the assumption that they will bring down prices for consumers have yet to deliver meaningful savings at the meat counter while creating uncertainty for U.S. farmers, according to new analysis from the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

In late August, President Donald J. Trump issued a proclamation to temporarily expand the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for lean beef trimmings by 300,000 metric tons or about 661 million pounds.

Beef began entering the U.S. under the lower tariff rate on Sept. 1, 2026, with the proclamation encouraging grocery stores to sell the beef at a 25% discount — without any retailer commitments or enforcement mechanism.

AFBF tracked daily prices of 80% lean ground beef at 41 grocery stores in 22 states starting Sept. 2, the day after the proclamation went into effect.

“We selected a variety of chain grocery stores and independent grocers across America, in major cities to rural areas, to see how ground beef prices reacted to the additional supply of beef,” AFBF economists Bernt Nelson and Faith Parum wrote in a new Farm Bureau Intel report.

Michigan prices reflected in report

Across their sample, the economists found the average price of ground beef barely moved, going from $7.29 a pound on Sept. 2 to $7.13 a pound on Sept. 23 — a reduction of 16 cents or approximately 2%.