August 17, 2009
Ailing US pork industry to ask for government assistance
Pork producers are preparing to increase pressure on the Obama administration to help out the ailing industry with some form of aid.
The National Pork Producers Council said Friday (August 14) it will be announcing Monday a public plea for "immediate financial assistance" from the government.
Pork producers have been quietly telling the US Department of Agriculture this year that due to years of poor prices and falling profits they need the government to buy US$50 million worth of pork off the market to help tighten the domestic supply.
The USDA has rebuffed the requests, citing a tight budget.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told lawmakers at a hearing held in May that pork producers were asking the government to buy up to $50 million worth of pork, but the USDA didn't have the money.
"I'm not sure that we have that kind of flexibility left in the budget," Vilsack told lawmakers at that time.
One industry official, though, said suspicions are strong that there is money available to help out producers - money that Congress appropriated in the 2009 fiscal year to help deal with the AH1N1 outbreak earlier this year.
And pork producers feel that some of that money should go toward the industry hit hardest by the swine flu.
AH1N1 didn't sicken pigs, but because of the name - swine flu - domestic pork consumption and exports took a hit. Analysts predicted earlier this year the industry would lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
"Since September 2007, the US pork industry has lost nearly US$4.5 billion, with pork producers losing an average of more than US$21 per pig over the past 21 months," the group said.
Prices have been too low for producers to profit while input costs continue to rise, NPPC spokesman Dave Warner said in a recent interview, "but the real problem is there's just too much pork out there."
Producers slaughtered about 115 million pigs in 2008 and that represents a continuous increase from 2007 and 2006, Warner said.
