Urner Barry has provided the most accurate market information for over 160 years. In 1857, Benjamin Urner was being regularly commissioned to prepare various price circulars for consigned agriculture goods by the many merchants who made their living buying and selling items that flooded into the city from around the world. In 1858, this realization led him to the idea of publishing a single, objective market report—the Producers’ Price-Current—later to be universally known as Urner Barry’s Price Current.

From 1858 to 1876 the Producers’ Price-Current was published by Benjamin Urner alone. By 1882, Urner Publishing Company was formed and began publishing the Producers’ Price-Current as a daily circular. By this time the Price Current’s success was acknowledged throughout the industry and was recognized as the best source on New York Market prices and conditions.
Meanwhile, in 1873, L. Frank Barry started a very similar service with his sons, the New York Daily Market Report, covering all produce markets and became the first such daily publication in the country. Recognizing areas of mutual interest, the two publishers merged in 1895 to form the Urner-Barry Company.

From the mid-1970s and onward, Urner Barry would begin to implement a slew of new publications and services covering various new markets using the latest in print and non-print media. In 1975, Urner Barry broke into the seafood market reporting world with the debut of the Seafood Price Current. In 1976, Urner Barry would host the very first Executive Conference in New Jersey, an event that would grow to become the most widely attended and recognized marketing event in the poultry and egg industries. In October of 1992, National Provisioner’s Yellow Sheet was acquired, broadening Urner Barry’s reporting realm into the beef, pork, lamb, veal, and inedible markets.

Since its founding days, Urner Barry has dramatically increased the number of publications and services available to the food industry. Building on its leadership position in the field and the assembly of an expert management team, Urner Barry has continued to expand its services. The creation of COMTELL Instant Market News in 1982 signaled the beginning of a significant paradigm shift in how the company would deliver, receive, and view media content. In 1999, Urner Barry would partner with, and eventually acquire, Seafoodnews.com to deliver the most accurate, daily and pertinent seafood news to the industry.

Urner Barry has embraced 21st century technology with the creation of COMTELL Online, the most accessible, accurate and timely source for news, quotes and research in the meat, poultry, egg, and seafood industries. Additionally, in 2000, Urner Barry partnered with CattleFax in a new initiative to produce the bi-weekly Obsono Market Insight offering, featuring analysis and forecasts for the poultry and red meat industries.

While Urner Barry has remained dedicated to pursuing innovation in data technology, the company honors its roots as a publisher and stills offers a complete line of print media, including books like the NAMI Meat Buyers Guide and the Commercial Guide to Fish and Shellfish. Urner Barry also provides its customers with newsletters, wall charts, and training resources to benefit those in the industry. In 2006, the company launched Urner Barry’s Reporter, a quarterly foodservice magazine highlighting top news and market insight across the food service industry.
Urner Barry continues to assess the needs of our customers while providing vital intelligence across a wide range of products. In 2020, COMTELL was entirely redesigned to make the data more user friendly and better serve the needs of our customers. In keeping up with developing trends in the market, plant protein quotations were added in 2021 to COMTELL along with coverage on several other key markets like imported lamb, UK beef, and cage free eggs, to name a few.

Stephanie Goldzman
Urner Barry
1-732-240-5330 ext 279
sgoldzman@urnerbarry.com