The beef market is booming: producer prices have risen by around 40 percent in five years. The running costs are also higher, but overall the profitability for the companies has improved, said Rinderbörse Managing Director Johannes Minihuber at a press conference on Wednesday. The demand is good. On the one hand, the decline in meat consumption in Austria is likely to have reached the valley sole, on the other hand, the export business runs primarily in the Middle East and North Africa.
Due to favorable production conditions, Austria still has a level of self -supply of 140 percent at beef. But: Despite good market prospects, production is declining.
In the previous year, around 1,000 cattle farmers in Austria again stopped, including around 300 in Upper Austria. There are a total of 50,400 cattle businesses (including 11,000 in Upper Austria). In ten years, the number of cattle holders has dropped by 20 percent, the beef stock by eight percent to 1.8 million animals (including 530,000 in Upper Austria).
And there is currently almost nothing invested in stables. “Although there are companies that would be ready,” said Minihuber. Reasons for the reluctance: increased stable construction costs, lack of capital, lack of court succession and legal uncertainty, especially in animal welfare. As a sword of the Damocles, the constitutional complaint of the state of Burgenland depends on the farmers against full column floors in beef stables.
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Image: LKOÖ
Source: Nachrichten
