President Donald Trump said his administration is looking at buying more beef from Argentina to drive beef prices down in the US. That sparked outcry from American beef producers.
President Trump told reporters recently that hed consider purchasing more beef from Argentina to drive down beef prices to help the consumer.
Beef prices in the U.S. have increased over the past couple decades due to a variety of factors, including a parasite in Mexican cattle.
The National Cattlemans Beef Association responded saying the plan only creates chaos while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices. That same sentiment spread to South Dakota producers.
U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., echoed similar concerns on the social media platform X. He wrote that he had conversations with President Trump and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.
Rounds said the conversation left him encouraged that the administration would do right by the American producer.
Rounds said hes pushed mandatory country of origin labeling on all beef.
He said that adding more foreign competition on the beef market without being able to differentiate where it came from would only exacerbate the problem and hurt domestic producers.
Warren Symens is the president of the South Dakota Cattlemens Association and a rancher, farmer and cattle feeder in the state. He called MCOOL a non-factor when it comes to the consumer.
If we do that, and people start seeing that and they decide they dont want that beef, youre going to remove a whole sector of the consumer out of the beef market, Symens said. Because if all they did was purchase American-grown beef, they wouldnt be able to afford it.
He said that would really drive beef prices up. Symens claims as they stand today, the reason beef prices have risen is due to inflation.
Symens added while you never want to hear the government is going to set competition for an American grown product, its not as bad as it sounds.
We realize were already importing some beef from Argentina. I think theyre about No. 10 on the list of importers, Symens said. And its lean product; its not high-quality product. Its lean product that would get mixed with our high-quality product. It really wouldnt move the needle very far.
However, he said just talking about it on a national scale affects the markets, something he called dangerous.
The biggest issue is when word comes out of Washington, then markets hiccup. It doesnt necessarily have anything to do with fundamentally with whats actually happening int the country when it comes to cattle being bought and sold. Cows were selling higher this week again, Symens said. So, its not like thats going to drive the market down when it comes to the actual product. But when were talking about the more injury and things like that, it causes those kinds of things to hiccup and that can cause uncertainty.
He said that is the biggest problem: the amount of uncertainty that goes along with such statements out of Washington.
On Wednesday, President Trump posted on Truth Social saying while he loves cattle ranchers, the only reason theyre doing well for the first time in decades is because he put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States If it werent for me, they would be doing just as theyve done for the past 20 years Terrible! He added that he is factoring in the consumer as well.
Those claims are something Symens said he cant get behind.
I would say that that factors in very little. I would say that he isnt listening to the people in the industry and he isnt listening to the representation from South Dakota thats been talking to him when they tell him otherwise, Symens said. That is so far from the honest truth that fundamentally that doesnt even make sense.
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