February 25, 2008

US January pork stocks hit record high
 

US cold storage warehouses' pork stocks hit a record high for January 2008 at 255,644 tonnes, up 47,582 tonnes from December 2007.

USDA placed January's pork belly stocks at about 31,071 tonnes, up 6,250 tonnes from December.

Dan Vaught, an AG Edwards' livestock analyst said the figure is significant as pork belly stocks usually decline in January.

Ham stocks are at about 38,419 tonnes, up 16,193 tonnes. With a large production but slow exports, ham stocks inevitably increased.

All pork products reported by USDA have shown an increase in January compared to stocks at December 2007.

Glenn Grimes, agricultural economist at the University of Missouri, said that pork production has exceeded the demand, with slaughter up 14 percent in January and some of the products were placed into cold storage.

The cold storage stocks are about a third of a month's production, he added.

With pork stocks reaching such high figures in January suggests an all-time high will be recorded in late spring, Vaught said.

In addition, livestock analysts have said that the sharp increase of pork stocks could lower pork and futures prices lower.