After the Milk and Beef Crises, Pork Now Faces Hard Times

As it is the case for the entire meat industry, pork is severely touched by declining prices and a study by the French consumer organization UFC-Que Choisir recently stirred up a hornet’s nest. The results of its survey on the price breakdown in various meat industries (beef, pork and poultry) published on January 27 show that, for the past 18 years, prices paid to hog farmers declined by nearly 30% while pork prices paid by consumers in supermarkets spiked up by 26%. As a result, the National Pork Federation––the Fédération Nationale Porcine (FNP)––quickly denounced retailers’ excessive margins and the disparity between production and retail prices, while hog and pig breeders are demonstrating in shopping centers to protest over the situation.

The crisis that currently affects the pork industry follows a long series of food crises, such as the dairy industry in November and the beef industry in December. This latest crisis is another example illustrating the current malaise in farming activities––already significantly distressed by the structural price volatility on international markets––which must now bear the costs of unfair value spreads between the various players in the human-managed food chain.