The hamburger on a dinner plate in Connecticut may have started with cattle raised in Kansas, Canada, Australia or Argentina. It could contain beef from more than one of those places. In many cases, there is no way for the person eating it to know.
The United States is turning increasingly to foreign beef to ease a nationwide supply shortage that has pushed prices to record levels. President Donald Trump recently announced the United States would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of imported product for ground beef to enter the country over 90 days without the higher tariffs that normally apply when import quotas are exceeded.
Trump said foreign suppliers had committed to selling the beef at 25% below current market price, but has not specified the countries.
The move follows an earlier expansion specifically for Argentina, which received an additional 80,000 metric tons of lower-tariff access this year for lean boneless beef used by processors. Argentina already had a 20,000-ton annual quota. USDA officials reported earlier this year that Argentine exporters were increasingly prioritizing the United States because prices were higher here.
Canada, Mexico, Australia and Brazil are much more significant parts of the U.S. beef trade than Argentina though, said Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University who specializes in the meat industry.
Where Connecticut’s beef comes from
While federal records can show where imported beef is initially headed, they often cannot show where it is ultimately eaten.
U.S. Census Bureau data shows no Argentine beef recorded with Connecticut as its state of ultimate destination during the first six months of 2026. It does show $6.2 million worth of foreign fresh and frozen beef headed directly to Connecticut, essentially all of it from Canada.
What happens after that is much harder to determine. The Census Bureau’s state data reflects the destination known when an import entry is filed. It does not follow meat after it enters domestic commerce and moves from a New Jersey warehouse to a Connecticut distributor, for example, or from a Pennsylvania processor to restaurants and supermarkets elsewhere in the Northeast.
Tonsor said federal import data could not determine how much foreign beef Connecticut residents actually eat.
“We can’t say that with precision,” he said.
That is particularly true for hamburger. Ground beef is commonly made by blending relatively fatty trimmings from one source with very lean beef from another until the mixture reaches the desired fat content, Tonsor said.
“You can have highly lean beef from Argentina blended with Kansas-based trimmings,” he said.
Tonsor said the average person in Connecticut is buying meat from out of state, although most of that meat still comes from elsewhere in the United States rather than overseas. Beef consumed in Connecticut is likely to come heavily from states, such as Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas.
Rising beef prices
The growing reliance on imports comes as the domestic cattle supply remains tight. The United States had 86.2 million cattle and calves as of Jan. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There were 27.6 million beef cows, down 1% from a year earlier, while the 2025 calf crop fell 2% to 32.9 million. The number of cattle on feed was down 3%.
That has translated to higher prices. The average retail price of uncooked ground beef in the Northeast was $7.02 a pound in July, up from $6.34 a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2019, it generally sold for about $4.40 to $4.60 a pound.
Wayne Pesce, president of the Connecticut Food Association, said supermarkets have watched customers change what they buy as beef prices climbed.
“It’s the center of the plate, and when the prices go to the levels that they’ve gone to, it’s concerning for us because it’s concerning for our customers,” Pesce said.
At first, consumers shifted from more expensive cuts of steak toward chicken, pork and relatively inexpensive ground beef, he said. Now even that is changing.
“Even ground beef’s taking a bit of a hit, and people are trading away from that as well,” Pesce said.
USDA has forecast that beef and veal prices will average 9.8% higher this year than in 2025. Beef and veal prices in July were already 9.4% higher than a year earlier, far outpacing overall grocery inflation.
Hard to tell beef’s country of origin
Imported meat has to identify its country of origin when it enters the United States. Immediate containers of imported meat must carry wording such as “Product of Argentina” or “Product of Canada,” and import records identify the foreign establishment and country.
But the USDA says the foreign country-of-origin statement is no longer required on the newly produced product after the imported beef is further processed in the U.S. That can include meat that is turned into another product after it arrives.
Mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef took effect in 2009, requiring many retailers to tell customers where covered beef products came from. Congress repealed those requirements for beef and pork in December 2015, and USDA formally removed them from its regulations the following year after years of disputes over labeling laws.
Imported beef sold intact in its original consumer-ready package still has to identify its foreign origin.
The rules changed this year in one significant way. Meat labeled voluntarily as “Product of USA” or “Made in the USA” now must come from animals born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the United States.
“If you get a random Joe package of one pound of ground beef that’s store brand … no, we don’t know with precision exactly where it came from,” Tonsor said.
Some brands voluntarily provide more information about sourcing, and consumers can buy directly from farms or companies that promise meat from a particular place.
Restaurants, cafeterias and similar food-service establishments are exempt from federal country-of-origin labeling requirements.
A restaurant’s supplier may know that a case of beef arrived from Australia or Argentina, but the customer ordering a burger generally does not have to be told.
Schools participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs generally must buy domestic food “to the maximum extent practicable,” under federal Buy American rules, according to the Connecticut State Department of Education. Connecticut school districts that purchase non-domestic foods under an exception must document those purchases, including the product’s country of origin. That means a district can have records showing foreign food purchases even though that information never appears on the lunch menu.
The lack of consumer-facing information does not appear to worry meat buyers, according to Kansas State’s Meat Demand Monitor, which surveys consumers about what they buy and what matters to them. Respondents are asked to rank 12 factors affecting meat purchases. Origin and traceability regularly ranks 11th.
“Taste and price and freshness and safety lead the decision,” said Tonsor, who runs it. “Origin, traceability, environmental impact, animal welfare do not.”
Pesce said Connecticut retailers see much the same thing.
“Price and taste,” he said. “I would agree with that sentiment 100%.”
Original article from Yahoo.
