This work analyzes the historical behaviour of prices paid to beef cattle producers and prices paid by consumers for different beef cuts in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the last decades. This study was based on two historical series of nominal monthly prices: prices paid to the producer, obtained from EMATER/RS and prices paid by the consumer, through commercialization prices of heart of hump, flat, topside, knuckle, ribs, tenderloin, blade, and striploin, obtained from IEPE/UFRGS. The nominal prices were deflationed for December 2006 according to the IGP-DI from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation. The Price Indexes to the consumer and producer were also calculated. For the tendency analysis of real prices paid to the producer, linear regression lines were adjusted over real prices for the periods between 1977-1994 and 1995-2006, using the minimum square method. Prices paid per kilogram of liveweight steers in Rio Grande do Sul presented significant decrease tendency from 1977 to 1994. However, prices obtained higher stability from 1995 to 2006, with no significant decrease during this period. The prices paid by the consumer did not present the same decreasing behaviour as the prices paid to the producer, resulting in a lower price loss during the analyzed period. Among the analyzed cuts, rib and tenderloin cuts presented different behaviour, with an elevation of prices being verified mainly during the decade of 1990.
Beef cattle production; agricultural prices; temporal series
