September 8, 2010

US wholesale pork prices set all-time high

US wholesale pork prices set an all-time high earlier this week on Tuesday (Sep 7) after eclipsing the old top from two years ago for a third consecutive day.

However, the market rolled back from Wednesday onward to end the week at nearly a two-week low. The new record daily high was set at US$96.74 per hundred pounds, up US$2.33 from the former high of US$94.41 hit in mid-August 2008.

Tightened supplies of slaughter-ready hogs to the tune of about 7% below a year ago during most of August along with reduced average hog weights due to the summer's heat trimmed pork output throughout the month.

Improved export sales this summer versus a year ago and higher prices of the competitive meats also helped push pork prices higher, analysts and brokers said.

Meanwhile, Brazil exported 43,771 tonnes of pork in July 2010, which is 9.0% less than the same month last year, according to ABIPECS. Thanks to an increase of 18.4% in the average price in US dollars, however, the overall value of the month's sales was 7.7% higher at US$108.2 million.

Compared to the same period of 2009, pork exports for the year to July are down 8.5% in volume to 313,468 tonnes, while the value of those sales is up 12.6% at US$769.5 million. The average selling prices is up 23.0% at US$2,455 per tonne.