At the 2025 Hemphill County Beef Conference, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, visited with the President of Certified Angus Beef, John Stika, about the importance of value and taste to consumers today.
According to Stika, the cattle business is all about how to satisfy consumers. “Customers deserve to be satisfied because we are asking them to pay almost record-high prices for beef today,” he said. “It continues to be more evident every time that it is price in relation to value, and consumers still value the taste of our product and the quality of our product to the point where even at near record prices, this past March, Certified Angus Beef had the highest volume selling month in our history with 117 million pounds of Certified Angus Beef sold.”
In addition to great-tasting products, a wide array of options is appealing to consumers. Stika shared, “In the Power of Meat study that is done by the American Meat Institute that just came out, we saw tremendous growth in the meat retail case for beef at both value and premium. We sold more steaks at higher prices than we have before. Still, it is those other lower-cost items that we can offer off of that beef carcass that allow us to continue to pull consumers, especially that millennial group that makes up a growing portion of our core customer base.”
Ground beef is not only one of the more affordable beef options, but it is also easy to cook and very versatile. Even still, Stika says that he gets more calls now than ever before from retailers, distributors, and restaurateurs wanting to add Certified Angus Beef Prime to their offerings.
“There are clearly customers that are looking for the entire mix of what comes off of a beef carcass, and it’s our job to make those available and make sure that they are high quality,” Stika asserted. “Whether they are buying ground beef or a T-bone, the product must never disappoint because even ground beef today is perhaps more expensive than the most expensive piece of pork in the meat case.”
Stika explained that both the brand and history of Certified Angus Beef are based on exceeding expectations, and while the meat case can seem somewhat complicated to consumers, he assured that looking for a Certified Angus Beef label is a good way to ensure that customers are getting a high-quality beef product.
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