Meat packagingThe USDA reports a decline in red meat and poultry supplies in cold storage during October. This reflects tighter stocks and robust demand.

Frozen red meat inventories totaled 882.696 billion pounds, a 3% decrease from last year. Beef stocks fell to 431.876 million pounds and pork stocks dropped to 426.025 million pounds. Both were down 3% year-over-year.

Poultry supplies saw a steeper 7% drop to 1.113 billion pounds. This was driven by strong demand for chicken and a seasonal reduction in turkey inventories. Chicken stocks declined by 6% to 803.551 million pounds, while turkey stocks fell by 4% to 307.735 million pounds.

The USDA will release its next round of red meat and poultry supply and demand estimates on December 10th.

Read more about the decline in red meat and poultry supplies here.