Pork Industry Outlook from National Forum

Pork Industry Outlook from National Forum

Susan Allen
Susan Allen
I'm Susan Allen with your Farm and Ranch Report. Today we'll discuss the other white meat, pork. During the National Pork Industry Forum last week Kerns and Associates economist Dr. Steve Meyer offered his outlook for the hog market.

MEYER: So not a bad year, not a great year. And the problem is that that breakeven year for average producers comes on top of some other break even years or even small lost years in 2018. And so we think there's going to be a little financial stress on the average producer out there, the good ones are still going to be in pretty good shape. A lot of it depends on what happens with China though. I mean there's been a lot of of speculation out there and all that speculation is probably true. I mean they're losing millions of pigs in china. It's lots worse than what's been reported. And at some point that's going to leave them short of protein and they're going to have to probably do something. We've got these tariffs in the way right now but we keep hearing that maybe by the end of the month we're going to have a deal done that gets those out of the way and that would be a big deal. So we still think the second half the year could be better than what the futures are showing right now. But some things have to resolve themselves in China and for that to happen.

US Meat Export Federation President and CEO Dan Halstrom (based in Denver) spoke at the forum as well on Thursday offering hope for producers regarding new opportunities in established markets like South Korea, Japan and Colombia. Halstrom also highlighted developments in emerging markets in Latin America Southeast Asia and Africa. He spoke on USMEF's efforts to preserve market share and capitalize on new opportunities in Mexico, despite facing a 20 % retaliatory duty

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