Demand Holds Up Despite Large Pork Supplies

The hog market is challenged by large supplies. Despite that, market analyst Steve Meyer says demand has been good.
Meyer: “August exports figures were pretty good — up 9 percent from a year ago. So that was a nice growth. Any comparisons to a year ago is comparing to a pretty bad year but by August last year we were going pretty well and that is encouraging. The problem is we’ve heard some issues from China and Europe since then that would suggest that they are not in the market like they were. Now I will say this lower whole sale prices are going to offset dollar disadvantage that we’ve had for the last year and half.”
Meyer, who is the vice president of pork analysis for EMI Analytics, says domestic demand is also positive.
Meyer: “Domestic demand is still good. Real per capita expenditures were still a little lower than last year but not by as much as the other species. And in fact, pork gained on total share of real per capita expenditures during the month of August. So in relative to the other specifics we did really well. I can’t say there is anything wrong with demand. It is not a demand situation.”
Due to large fourth quarter supplies, Meyer says it is very important for pork producers to remain current in their marketings.