July 23, 2010

US pork supply plunges on dwindling herds 

US frozen-pork stockpiles were 29% smaller at the end of June than a year earlier, as shrinking herds led to a decline in production and exports of the meat rebounded.

Warehouses held 410.1 million pounds of pork on June 30, down from 577.9 million a year earlier, when supplies were the highest on record for the date, the USDA said Thursday (Jul 22). Inventories fell 8.1% from the end of May.

US meatpackers may have produced 1.5% less pork in June than a year earlier after farmers cut hog herds, analysts said. US exports of the meat jumped 18% in May from a year earlier, according to government data.

Hog futures for October settlement rose 0.775 cent, or 1%, to 76.4 cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The most-active contract has climbed 33% in the past year.

US inventories of pork bellies, which are cured and sliced to make bacon, plunged 54% from a year earlier to 35.4 million pounds Thursday. Warehouse supplies of ham fell 2.7% to 113.4 million pounds.

Chicken-meat stockpiles at the end of June were 2.3% larger than a year earlier at 669 million pounds, the USDA said. Beef inventories shrank 14% to 375.3 million pounds.