South Dakota continues to be the nation’s biggest producer of buffalo meat. The market for bison has softened in recent months, but only slightly.
The demand for buffalo has maintained somewhat continued growth over the past several years. The trend may buck conventional critics who’ve called the buffalo market volatile.
SDPB’s Charles Michael Ray has this update on the growth in demand for buffalo.
Nina Biensen is a market reporter for the USDA. She tracks the bison prices. Biensen says the bison market is largely holding its own following an upward trend of other meats like pork and beef. She says in the winter of 2012 the bison market peaked and has since dropped off slightly. Biensen says this may be due to seasonal variation. She adds that the drought of last year limited supply.
“So the amount of product on the market has decreased and that has also put a floor underneath the bison meat and the prices which have to be paid for these bison animals which are being harvested,” says Biensen.
Buffalo is still a niche market in many ways. It’s only a small fraction of red meat consumed in the United States. But, those like Biensen maintain that the continued consumer preference for lean healthy meat will sustain the demand for buffalo overall.
You can read more about the bison meat boom as reported by Charles Michael Ray on NPR's food blog "The Salt" here.