Quality Will Rise But Beef Prices Likely to Fall in 2017

Add one more item to the growing list of things Millennials are changing as they inherit the U.S. economy: Beef consumption. "Millennials increasingly want to know where their beef comes from and how it was produced," said Steve Sands, vice president of protein for Performance Food Group (PFGC) - Get Report . As for what millennials - and everybody else - will be paying for their beef in 2017, Sands said the recovering economy bodes well for beef consumption, but the large amount of cattle already in the pipeline means beef prices will likely trend lower. Cattle prices rallied last month after a two-year downward trend where values fell more than 40%. Sands expects U.S. beef exports to increase 5% in 2017. The U.S. is the top exporter of chilled beef in the world.