The director of risk management with h@ms Marketing Services says, while export demand for pork has been sluggish, domestic demand has been holding firm.
The market for live hogs has seen recent improvement, a reflection of the normal seasonal easing of supplies.
Tyler Fulton, the director of risk management with h@ms Marketing Services, says all evidence suggests domestic demand for pork is holding firm.
Pork is very well placed in the context of all meats, in particular beef and chicken from a price standpoint. It’s got diversified uses, diversified cuts, which isn’t new but in an environment where there’s heavy supply it really helps to get a lot of different segments of the value chain going and making sure you’ve got a broad base.
I think there’s a pretty good relationship with the fact that the U.S. economy is improving and has improved significantly and that has probably led to better pork demand. I’d say on the export side though things are still struggling. They’re definitely on the uptrend, probably because world prices are down and so pork imports are improving for some of those more developing nations. But that high U.S. dollar really makes it tough for U.S. producers to compete and there’s still some uncertainty in the global economy as to whether or not we can expect robust economic growth which would lead to more pork trade.
Fulton acknowledges the low value of the Canadian dollar has been the real game changer making Canadian pork particularly competitive on the international market.
