CME: Decline in Lean Hog Prices
US - CME's Daily Livestock Report for 29th August 2008.Hog markets collapsed this week with the IA/MN lean hog price declining a whopping 12.6% compared to a week ago. There are numerous anecdotal reports that export sales have slowed down considerably but with no official data available, it is quite difficult to make any firm pronouncements. While rumors of cutbacks in Russian purchases made the news, we suspect that the recent decline in hog and pork prices reflects a more broad based deceleration in exports, partly due to reductions in Chinese purchases after the Olympics but, probably more importantly, the effects of a US currency that has gained as much as 10% in the past 6 weeks.
