By Tom Polansek
July 6 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday that Walmart would lower prices on many products, including ground beef, after a request from his administration.
The retailer said customers would save on items including meat, produce and soda at its Walmart and Sam's Club stores this summer.
Record-high beef prices have strained the wallets of U.S. consumers who also paid much higher gasoline prices after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February.
Prices for steaks
and hamburger meat soared after a persistent drought burned pasture lands and hiked costs of cattle feed, forcing U.S. ranchers to slash their herds. Economists have said it will take years to rebuild the herd to expand domestic beef supplies.
Trump said Walmart will drop prices on a pound of ground beef by "almost" 15% after his administration made a request to coincide with the nation's 250th birthday.
"This is a huge deal for the many millions of Americans who, smartly, shop at Walmart, which is a truly patriotic Company who loves the U.S.A.," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Walmart said in a statement that the price of one pound of 73% ground beef roll would drop to $5.94 from $6.74 in its stores, a decline of about 12%. The retailer also said it lowered prices on items including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo sodas and chips.
At Sam's Club stores, Member's Mark 88/12 ground beef will be priced at $5.97 per pound, instead of $6.17, a 3% decline, according to the statement.
"Walmart is stepping up in a big and bold way, and other Retailers should follow the lead of these absolute Patriots," Trump said.
Trump previously encouraged low-tariff imports of Argentine beef to cool U.S. prices, angering American ranchers, and directed the Department of Justice to investigate whether U.S. meatpackers were colluding to raise prices.
U.S. beef producers formerly imported Mexican cattle to fatten and slaughter for American consumers, but Washington blocked such imports more than a year ago because of the spread of the flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite in Mexico.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas in Los Angeles, Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto, Tom Polansek in Chicago and Nicholas Brown in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
