Meat Retail Prices in the U.S. and Canada: Who Pays More?

We have long assumed that as a general fact American consumers pay less than Canadians for meat protein, owing in large part to U.S. agriculture subsidies.

Readers may be as surprised as we were to find that that Canadians consistently pay significantly less for one item in particular: ground beef. Readers can check for themselves, and we suggest starting with Walmart as it operates on both sides of the border. As of this writing, Walmart’s advertised price for medium ground beef in Canada is a little more than $13/kg. Meanwhile, the U.S. price (Rochester, NY in this instance), converted to kilograms and Canadian dollars, is a little more than $20/kg.

Retail sales data from Statistics Canada and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that this is not a recent development, either. In fact, it has been in place for as far back as the data we have on hand goes, which is at least 2017. Further, CFC acquired U.S. and Canadian comparable retail sales data from Nielsen back in 2004 and even then Canadian consumers were paying less for ground beef than their American neighbours. Given the integration of the North American beef market, the explanation for this is unclear, but we suspect that an underlying cause could be higher price sensitivity in Canadian consumers as well as American consumers’ stronger purchasing power, both of which influence retailers’ pricing decisions.

This relationship is seen in other beef items as well such as stewing beef and sirloin, both of which are tracked by Statistics Canada and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and have consistently been cheaper in Canada. Until recently, whole chickens had the opposite relationship, with U.S. prices being consistently lower. Since early last year, prices for whole chickens have been much closer and occasionally lower in Canada. Boneless skinless breast meat is still significantly cheaper in the U.S. For pork, U.S. prices are also consistently lower.

The charts below show the relationships between retail prices for the items discussed above.