Despite COVID Challenges Domestic Pork Demand Remains Exceptional

The Director of Risk Management with HAMS Marketing Services reports, despite ongoing challenges resulting from COVID, domestic demand for pork has remained exceptional. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's quarterly Hogs and Pigs report, released September 24th, indicates heavier weight slaughter hog numbers were in line with market expectations but some of the lighter weight numbers fell six percent resulting in firmer prices.

Tyler Fulton, the Director of Risk Management with HAMS Marketing Services, notes, while COVID continues to disrupt both the supply and demand side of the equation, domestic demand for pork has been solid.

Clip-Tyler Fulton-HAMS Marketing Services:

We don't have a ton of new information on global pork demand. What we have seen is Mexico be a very strong importer of U.S. pork and in general there seems to be a lot of demand.

There is a concern over container supply which is a bottleneck in shipping pork to in particular Asia so that's a concern but overall, I still think we're in a pretty good spot from a demand perspective.

On the domestic side, I think COVID is still having some disruptive effects on the normal flow of pork through the channels but I think unequivocal, we're now coming off of one of the best pork demand equations that we've so far this year, in 2021. So, unless things really turn around, we're looking at an exceptional year for pork demand domestically.