Dive Brief:
- Pork is bouncing back after supply fell and prices increased to all-time highs following a porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and will now surpass beef as a more highly produced meat in the U.S. for the "first time since 1952," touts a Bloomberg headline.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects that beef production will hit a 22-year low due to cattle ranchers' inability to recover from a 2012 drought, while pork output in 2015 will leap 4.6% to a record high.
- The government said that during the last quarter ending Dec. 1, the breeding-sow herd saw the biggest uptick since 1998 and was the biggest in five years. Since last year, the total hog population increased by 2% to 66.05 million, hitting its highest number in five quarters.
Dive Insight:
Tyson, a major meats supplier, can attest to boosts in the pork industry. Pork played a role in Tyson's latest quarterly earnings, which included sales of $10.82 billion, a 23.5% revenue increase over last year's first quarter.
According to Tyson, "Increased demand for our pork products drove higher average sales price and sales volume. Additionally, our average sales price increased due to lower total hog supplies which resulted in higher input costs. Operating income remained strong as we maximized our revenues relative to live hog markets, partially attributable to operational and mix performance."