Producers may squeal as bacon price drops

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Bacon lovers may be rejoicing, but pork producers not so much as the price of bacon is dropping fast as pig herds recover from disease, Reuters reports.

Farmers' herds throughout North America are recovering from Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea virus (PEDv), which killed at least eight million pigs in the United States over the last two years, says Reuters. This shortage caused a pork price hike for many products, including bacon. According to the news agency, pork belly prices rose to $154.45 per hundredweight (cwt) from July to September 2014. This year, they are expected to fall to $99 during the same period.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), farmers have been feeding hogs to heavier weights to help counter their losses from PEDv. Last February the average carcass basis hog dropped to a six year low of $61.82 per cwt. The USDA also reports that wholesale prices for 13-to-17-pound skinless pork bellies averaged $82.16 per cwt for the week ending March 28, versus $231.47 a year earlier.

All this affected the price of bacon, which had reached a record high of $6.11 per pound in June 2014. Last February, bacon dropped to $5.47 per pound, a 12 cent decrease over January's price, and is expected to fall even further. BP