STORY:
No Shortage of Beef On New Year's

Restaurants booking bigger beef shipments and supplies are prepared

Despite reports of champagne and caviar shortages for New Year's Eve, there's apparently is no need to worry about have a big juicy steak as you party into the Year 2000. Restaurants are booking beef shipments early, to make sure there will be enough for all the parties industry sources tell Reuters.

The demand for "millennium beef," as some industry observers are calling it, has contributed to a 14 percent increase in some wholesale beef prices since early September say news reports.

A commodities analyst for a nationwide cooperative that buys meat for grocery stores tells Reuters the excitement to get things booked even earlier this year has generated much higher prices despite larger supplies than a year ago. The analyst says the price for tenderloins, where cuts such as filet mignon originate, was about $12.00 per pound last week, compared with last year's peak price of $8.35 on December 5.

The analyst says the talk of rapidly filling hotel reservations in major cities for New Year's celebrations fueled some of the industry drive to book beef shipments early.

Source: Reuters

DATE: 10/8/99

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