Live hog prices fell below $40 per hundredweight last week, their lowest level since November 2009.
Purdue University Extension economist Chris Hurt says the source of the current downturn in prices has components from both supply and demand. He says abundant supplies of pork are easy to find as Pork production this year is up seven percent, but demand has slowed.
Hurt believes that the weakness in demand may have been affected by the World Health Organization’s announcement in October that linked bacon and processed meats to cancer in humans and generated considerable media coverage in the weeks that followed.
Just before that announcement, live hog prices were about $52 per live hundredweight and are currently about $38, just four weeks later.
While the WHO announcement may have harmed short-term prices, Hurt says it should have little long-term effect.
