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Beef prices in NYC
FOX 5 NY's Kendall Green shows us how mother nature may have played a role in this.
The price of beef is on the rise nationwide, jumping roughly 2 percent from November 2022 to June 2023.
The spike in costs means not only are your trips to the grocery store more pricey, but even some of New York City's finest steakhouses are struggling to keep up.
For Steve Haxhiaj, owner of the Tuscany steakhouse nestled in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, his restaurant is more than just a business venture; it's a testament to decades of determination and perseverance and has become renowned for serving perfectly cooked steaks.
But as beef prices continue to rise, customers are becoming fewer.
"They're not here 2, 3 times a week anymore," Haxhiaj said. "Once a week, every second week."
The price of a sirloin steak is now up to an eye-watering $63.95. A bone-in ribeye steak $73.95, and a filet mignon nearly $66. Expensive meals, but for the restaurant, the cost of survival.
"To be honest with you even at today’s date the prices that we are charging on that menu we don’t make any money on the steaks," Haxhiaj said.
Bernt Nelson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau, attributes the rising costs of beef to back-to-back-to-back droughts that yielded a 52-year record low supply of cattle, thereby driving up the price of beef.
"We saw average beef, aggregate prices hit 7.57 per pound in June," Nelson said. "And this is when we’re seeing the demand on these prices for fourth of July. It’s really a peak grilling season for our consumers and that really brought those beef prices up and they’ve kind of stayed there since."
And relief for restaurants and consumers isn't on the horizon.
"It’s going to continue for at least another year. I think it’ll be 2025 before we can start to rebuild that inventory in which case our beef supply would likely increase, and then we’ll see some softening in prices," Nelson said.