Meat - Hog, Cattle, Poultry etc.

[winston]

China pork prices soar 116pc, to peak in Sept

by Winnie Lee

Pork output from January to March plunged by 29 percent. REUTERS

Pork prices in the mainland jumped 116 percent from a year ago in March, but is likely to peak in September due to the impact of the African swine fever that decimated its herd, an agriculture ministry official said yesterday.

Pork prices were 52.96 yuan (HK$57.99) per kg in the third week of April.

Supply will be under pressure because of a low production base, uncertainty in imports and recovering consumption, said Yang Zhenhai, head of the husbandry bureau under the ministry.

China's sow herd rose 2.8 percent month-on-month by end of March, while the number of piglets increased 7.3 percent, said Yang, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Pork output in January to March fell sharply by 29 percent year-on-year, marking a sixth straight quarter of declines and underlining the extent of the impact from the disease as well as the huge task the sector faces in trying to rebuild.

China has taken measures to buoy pork output and meats supplies to plug the huge protein gap, but curbs to contain the coronavirus - which has confined people to their homes and shuttered businesses including slaughterhouses - have disrupted efforts.

The pork supply situation is expected to improve after July, Yang added, but stronger consumption in the second half will push prices up.

Chinese pork prices hit record levels of 53.79 yuan per kg in October 2019, a three-fold increase from a year earlier, after African swine fever killed millions of pigs in the world's top pork producer. However, prices had been dropping since early February with a pig production recovery and flat demand.

Meanwhile, another major meat company in the United States has closed plants temporarily due to cases of the coronavirus among its employees and concerns of its spread.

JBS USA said it would indefinitely close two plants that process 20,000 hogs a day, which is about 5 percent of the total US daily pork slaughter. The pork production facility that JBS is closing is in Worthington, Minnesota and employs more than 2,000 workers, according to a statement.

Source: The Standard

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section- ... ak-in-Sept

[winston]

Trump to order US meat plants to stay open amid food supply fears
ic
WASHINGTON, April 29 — President Donald Trump will sign an executive order compelling meat packing plants to stay open, despite a string of coronavirus deaths, in a bid to secure US food supplies, the White House said yesterday.

“President Trump is signing an Executive Order providing the authority to ensure the continued supply of beef, pork, and poultry to the American people,” the White House said in a statement.

“Under the order, the Department of Agriculture is directed to ensure America’s meat and poultry processors continue operations uninterrupted to the maximum extent possible.”

The statement added that the processing plants will be fully compliant with the CDC guidelines on health and safety during the pandemic.

Trump had said earlier in the White House that the details of an order were being drawn up for signing but gave no specifics.

The facilities, where animals are slaughtered and processed into food sold in shops, have long struggled with safety and sanitary issues.

Facing alarming rates of the novel coronavirus among workers in the often tightly packed work spaces, some suppliers have closed down.

As warnings mount that stores will run out, Trump will invoke the Defence Production Act to compel the meatpacking businesses to keep working.

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), the nation’s largest meatpacking union, said more safety precautions were needed.

“At least 20 meatpacking workers have tragically died from coronavirus while more than 5,000 workers have been hospitalised or are showing symptoms,” UFCW president Marc Perrone said in a statement.

“While we share the concern over the food supply, today’s executive order to force meatpacking plants to stay open must put the safety of our country’s meatpacking workers first,” he added.

“Simply put, we cannot have a secure food supply without the safety of these workers.”

Last week, meatpacking giant Tyson Foods announced the temporary closure of its plant in Pasco, Washington state, which it says usually produces enough beef in a day for four million people.

A big pork plant in South Dakota run by Smithfield Foods and two JBS cattle slaughterhouses are among the others to have shut their doors.

Source: AFP

https://www.malaymail.com/news/money/20 ... rs/1861269

[winston]

High demand, short supply

African Swine Fever and COVID-19 have tightened pork supplies in China and accelerated
upstream consolidation, favouring big players

Lower tariffs, a 3-4x Sino-US hog price spread, and rising demand for semi-processed foods in
China have all prompted us to project a 57% surge in 2020 import volumes

Reiterate BUY on WH Group as a key beneficiary of tighter supplies yet higher pork demand in
China

Source: DBS

https://researchwise.dbsvresearch.com/R ... djjckgaifc

[behappyalways]

Beef Prices Will Remain High for Months as Producers Work to Rebuild Capacity, Executive Warns
https://time.com/5838703/beef-shortage-months/

[winston]

Billionaire farmer sees tipping-point for sky-high hog prices

Source: SCMP

https://www.scmp.com/business/companies ... hog-prices

[behappyalways]

What the JBS cyberattack means for your meat supply
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/01/busi ... index.html

[behappyalways]

US Hog Herd Hit By Largest Monthly Drop Since 1999
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/u ... -drop-1999

[winston]

Biden v Big Meat: Can the US tackle rising beef prices?

By Daniel Thomas

Average meat prices have risen unusually sharply, with beef up 14% since December 2020, pork by 12.1% and poultry 6.6%.

The administration is investigating "price-fixing" in the chicken-processing industry (which has already led to a $107m fine for Pilgrim's Pride, a Colorado based supplier). And it plans to tighten the laws governing competition in the meat industry.

Yet the major processors say the administration is "scapegoating" them and has misunderstood the "fundamentals" of the market.

Just four giants - JBS, Cargill Meat Solutions, Tyson Foods, and National Beef Packing Co - control between 55% and 85% of the market, depending on the meat. In the 1970s and 80s, the four largest packing firms controlled just 25-35%.

Source: BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58659478

[winston]

Why are US beef prices soaring?

By Michelle Cheng

At the height of the pandemic, covid-19 outbreaks forced meatpacking facilities to shut down, reducing beef production. But they never recovered entirely.

Part of that, he said, has to do with labor shortages that have slowed down production, from the food workers processing the beef to the truck drivers transporting it.

The ongoing supply chain challenges such as rising freight rates are also affecting meat production along with the broader global economy.

Rising corn and soy prices, which make the feed for livestock more expensive, also factor into the soaring beef prices.

Source: Quartz

https://qz.com/2074615/why-is-beef-so-e ... source=YPL

[winston]

Cattle futures at record high on Asian appetite

Beef prices posted a sharp growth of 32.7 percent in October year-on-year with global food prices growing by 31.3 percent.

China's meat imports in October fell from a year ago to their lowest in 20 months, customs data showed, as cheap domestic pork cut demand for overseas supplies.

Source: Reuters

https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section- ... n-appetite