USDA's US Export Sales report said that the country's pork net sales jumped to 15,100 tonnes this week, which is more than double last week's report of 7,200 tonnes.

Primary destinations included Mexico (7,300 tonnes), Canada (2,000 tonnes), Japan (900 tonnes), Hong Kong (800 tonnes), and South Korea (700 tonnes).  Exports of 8,900 tonnes were primarily to Mexico (3,700 tonnes), Canada (1,200 tonnes), Japan (1,100 tonnes), Hong Kong (800 tonnes), and South Korea (600 tonnes).

Wednesday (May 29) news of a planned Smithfield Foods takeover by a large Chinese firm appeared to support Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) swine futures again Thursday (May 30). Despite widespread doubts about the speed with which increased US exports might flow to China, traders rather obviously suspect that will be the case. The bullish swine futures' response to the Smithfield Foods news continued Thursday night. June hog futures edged up US$0.20 to US$0.956/pound in early Friday electronic action, while December gained US$0.15 to US$0.82.