The comprehensive boxed-beef report provides insight into various types of weekly sales – quality, type and destination. Last week’s Industry At A Glance chart focused primarily on the quality aspect and the growing proportion of branded sales over time.

There’s another important trend occurring in the wholesale market: increasing proportion of out-front sales. The graph above details how that’s played out over time in the marketplace. Similar to the live side of the market, packers and wholesale beef buyers are decreasingly utilizing the spot market to manage their inventory needs. Those entities turn to non-spot markets to ensure business continuity, as well as utilizing them as a tool for business stability.

Given the outlook for ever-tightening supply in the year(s) to come, will this proportion climb even higher? And if so, will that have further ramifications on the live market and weekly negotiations? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.