Beef demand on the rise nationally.

Americans will be eating more beef during the next few years, the National Cattlemen's Association (NCA) predicts. It says beef production will increase by more than one percent in 1993 and that average per capita consumption is expected to rise slightly from the 1992 level of 66.5 pounds.

Increases in beef exports and the U.S. population will keep growth in per capita supplies slow, notes Chuck Lambert, NCA director of economics. However, the amount of beef and other meats will be large enough to prevent wholesale and retail prices from increasing very much, if at all. The retail beef price average is expected to be about the same as the 1992 average of $2.58 per pound, for all grades of beef.

On a retail weight basis, average per captia beef consumption currently is about the same as chicken consumption. On a boneless, edible weight basis, however, beef remains well ahead of chicken and will continue as the leading meat well into the foreseeable future, maintains Tom Brink, director of market research for...