Profits In Meat Industry Depend On Demand

COLUMBIA, Mo. Tough times across the livestock sector can get better this
year, but it will take demand, demand, demand, said Scott Brown, economist with
the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI).

Supply is not the problem. We need a return of consumer confidence, Brown told
University of Missouri Extension livestock specialists at a meeting on campus.
When consumer confidence was chopped in half, we went into uncharted territory.
There will be recovery when consumers are ready to spend, but it will require
people getting jobs.

There are bright spots in the economy. Economic growth was up 5.7 percent in
the fourth quarter of 2009. That was unexpected, Brown said. And were getting
good news from the stock market.

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Food and
Agricultural Policy Research Institute, Missouri University