By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO, May 26 (Reuters) – Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures dropped to contract lows once more on Friday, as poor demand for U.S. pork continued to depress costs.
The losses heap extra ache on producers who’ve struggled with weak costs for pigs and excessive prices for bills like livestock feed and labor.
“Producers are losing their rear ends,” mentioned Dan Norcini, an impartial livestock dealer.
Retail pork costs stay too excessive to enhance demand from customers, Norcini mentioned. Small-time and impartial farmers might give up the business until demand improves, he mentioned.
“Grocers must start to feature pork aggressively or we are not going to have anything left except the big boys,” Norcini mentioned.
Some main firms are already decreasing operations in North America.
Canada’s Olymel, one of many nation’s greatest pork processors, mentioned it’s going to slash its western sow herd by 30% to 40,000 sows in manufacturing.
The closure of sow farms will lead to a web discount of about 200,000 market hogs yearly to a slaughter plant in Red Deer, Alberta, from company-owned farms, Olymel mentioned. The affect will probably be felt in 2024 on the earliest.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
((Thomas.Polansek@thomsonreuters.com))
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