World Hog news:

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009Print This Page
Poultry and Livestock Diseases Continue Spreading
VIET NAM - Diseases affecting Viet Nam’s fowl and cattle are continuing to spread throughout the country, the Department of Animal Health said at a meeting held in Hanoi yesterday.



Bird flu has spread to northern Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, Bac Kan and Dien Bien provinces, central Khanh Hoa Province and the three Mekong Delta provinces of Soc Trang, Ca Mau and Bac Lieu.

ThanhNien News.com reports that meanwhile, foot-and-mouth disease has spread to cattle in nine provinces and cities across the country including: Hoa Binh, Nghe An, Quang Ninh, Quang Nam, Kon Tum, Bac Kan, Phu Tho, Quang Ngai and Can Tho.

Blue ear disease (PRRS), which affects pigs, has spread to Bac Kan and Quang Nam provinces and Can Tho City.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has established five groups to inspect localities, supervise and give directives to prevent and fight the diseases, Deputy Minister Diep Kinh Tan said at the meeting.

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Thursday, March 12, 2009Print This Page
Is Salmonella Spreading to Pig Farms?
FINLAND - Salmonella has been found in the pig feed Yhdistelmä-Tiiviste (protein concentrate) from the Rehuraisio Oy factory in Raisio.



The salmonella found is suspected to be of the same strain of Salmonella Tennessee as the strain previously detected on two egg production farms and in the poultry feed protein concentrate, Kanatiiviste Herkku.

Rehuraisio’s cleaning and sanitation measures are being extended to include the whole factory. During this time, no feed will be delivered to farms from the establishment.

The authorities are taking faecal and feed samples from all the pig and poultry farms to which feed produced on the Raisio factory line 7 had been delivered subsequent to 15 January 2009. These feeds have also been produced on the other lines, but the sampling that is now beginning does not concern them. More information is available from the sales personnel at Rehuraisio.

The farms can continue using the feeds until they get replacement feeds.


 

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Friday, March 13, 2009Print This Page
Hunan Imports Herd of US Breeding Pigs
CHINA - The central Chinese province of Henan, a leading farm production base, has imported 360 breeding pigs from the United States to improve the quality of pork, the provincial animal husbandry bureau said Thursday.



The herd of 60 boars and 300 sows will be raised at the Zhengyang County breeding farm, a national breeding stock facility run by the provincial animal husbandry bureau. The farm has spent 3 million yuan (approx. $440,000) to build air-conditioned piggeries.

Lai Dengming, the farm head, said the pigs were selected by three Chinese specialists. The animals were purchased from the three largest breeding swine farms in Indiana, Illinois and Nebraska.

Each pig was valued at 20,000 yuan ($2,928) and all were offspring of prized breeding swine, according to Lai.

Given improving living standards and diets, Chinese consumers have come to prefer lean pork. Mr Lai said he expected that the first litters of these pigs would be born in September and meat from these animals would start to be sold by next year.

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Friday, March 13, 2009Print This Page
Zhongpin to Increase and Streamline Its Capacity
CHINA - Zhongpin Inc, one of China's leading meat and food processing company, has provided an update on its plan to increase and streamline its production capacity.



Starting from April 2009, Zhongpin plans to begin construction of a pork production facility in Tianjin City and a prepared meat facility in Changge City, Henan Province.

The new pork production facility, located in the Jinghai Economic Technical Development Area in Tianjin City, will increase total annual pork production capacity by 136,000 tonnes.

The facility will be designed to process 100,000 tonnes of chilled and frozen pork products annually, of which 70 per cent will be dedicated to chilled pork and 30 per cent to frozen pork.

The plant will also include an annual production capacity of 36,000 metric tons of prepared meat products.

This plantis expected to cost $52 million, excluding the investment in land use rights, and will be equipped mostly with state-of-the-art, imported equipment and machinery.

The construction of the new Tianjin facility will also include a new warehouse and distribution centre, and a R&D (Research and Development) centre, which will improve Zhongpin's product portfolio, support cold chain logistics and effectively accommodate the newly added production capacity by facilitating efficient distribution.

The production lines for chilled and frozen pork products are expected to come online at the end of the first quarter of 2010 and will achieve its target rate of use at the end of the third quarter of 2010.

The prepared meat production line and the new warehouse and distribution center are expected to come online by the end of the second quarter of 2010 and will achieve its target rate of use at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010. Without causing any interruption to its current marketing and distribution program, Zhongpin intends to terminate its lease at the existing Tianjin City facility after production at the new facility begins. With the addition of the new facility and closure of the existing facility in Tianjin City, Zhongpin's annual chilled and frozen pork production capacity will increase by nine per cent, reaching 545,760 tonnes from the current 498,760 tonnes.

Zhongpin's new prepared meat facility, located in Zhongpin's Industrial Park in Changge City, Henan Province, will increase annual prepared meat production capacity by 36,000 tonnes.

The construction of this facility is expected to cost $21 million and it will be equipped with advanced equipment and machinery imported from top-tier international manufacturers.

The plant will produce quick-freeze sausages and other prepared meat products catering to varying consumer tastes.

The construction of the facility is expected to be completed and commence production by the end of the fourth quarter of 2009. The new facility is expected to achieve its target rate of use by the end of the second quarter of 2010.

With the additional prepared meat production capacity from the new Tianjin and Changge City facilities, Zhongpin's annual prepared meat products capacity will increase by 133 per cent to 126,000 tonnes from the current 54,000 tonnes.

"We are pleased to announce the next stage of our capacity expansion plan. While pork consumption has been temporarily impacted by the economic slowdown in China, our mid to long-term outlook for China's pork industry remains favorable.

"Government mandates designed to modernise the pork industry have hastened the transition from traditional wet markets to modern dry markets and we are optimistic that the RMB 4 trillion economic stimulus package will have a positive impact on the economy in the latter half of 2009," said by Mr Xianfu Zhu, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Zhongpin.

"We are confident in our ability to bring these new facilities online as planned, quickly ramp up production and continue to grow our business. The new plant in Tianjin City will facilitate our strategic penetration into Northern China, which is one of our primary target markets," Mr Xianfu said.

He said the new prepared meat facility will be located in Henan Province to effectively utilize the advanced R&D capabilities at the company's headquarters.

"Our aggressive expansion plans focus on the growth of our prepared meat products line as it offers attractive margins and will help optimize our product mix.

"As a profitable supplement to our product portfolio, our fruits and vegetables product line will continue to positively contribute to our future growth. We strongly believe that our current cash position combined with our available lines of credit will be sufficient to support our growth strategy," Mr Xianfu said.

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Monday, March 16, 2009Print This Page
Unprecedented Drop in Pig Numbers
EU - The total European Union breeding herd fell by an unprecedented six per cent compared with a year earlier, according to December census results. Slaughter pigs are down five per cent.


"Record feed costs throughout Europe in the year to mid-2008 had a significant impact on pig numbers," reports BPEX economist Tony Fowler. "Declines were recorded in every member state except Italy, although the most marked contractions were seen in eastern European countries.


"These results indicate that European Union pigmeat production will remain well down on year earlier levels, at least through to mid-2009 and possibly through to the end of the year."

[mikey]

Monday, March 16, 2009Print This Page
Cutting Edge Technology Detects Pork Contaminants
DUBAI - Dubai Central Laboratory is using molecular diagnostic techniques based on DNA content for the detection pork contaminants or pork derivatives.



Eng. Hawa Bastaki, Director of Dubai Central Laboratory Department of Dubai Municipality said that DCL is always keen to be the best product confidence vendor at the global level, thus contributing to the realization of the vision of Dubai Municipality of creating an excellent city that provides the essence of success and comfort of living.

"In order to enhance the confidence of consumers and in response to some questions and messages we received on the extent of pork contaminants in Crispy Cream Donuts, we have been conducting thorough examinations of the samples to verify the components," she said.

Maha Al Hajri, Head of Food and Environment Lab in the Dubai Central Laboratory Department said the samples covered by the survey did not show any positive results in the presence of pork contaminants or pork derivatives.

The technology can detect these contaminants, even if in small quantities as the techniques used are of the latest used worldwide. The DCL is the first laboratory at the country using molecular diagnostic techniques based on DNA content for the detection of such pork contaminants.

Dr Mazin Abbas, a specialist in genetic engineering and biotechnology in the Dubai Central Laboratory said the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique, which is an excellent technique used by DCL to detect the presence of pork contaminants, can detect the presence of these contaminants, even if in small quantities as the routine traditional techniques used for the purpose can fail in detecting minute contents

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009Print This Page
EU Considers Regulations to Stop Slaughter Suffering
EU - All forms of unnecessary suffering by animals must be avoided, but religious freedom must be respected, says the Agriculture Committee, which voted on Monday on plans to tighten up the rules on animal welfare at the time of slaughter.



Every year in the European Union, 360 million pigs, cattle, sheep and goats are killed, as are over 4 billion poultry birds and 25 million animals reared for fur. In a consultation report drafted by Janusz Wojciechowski (UEN, PL), the Agriculture Committee approved a European Commission proposal seeking to replace the 1993 directive on the protection of animals at the time of slaughter by a new regulation to improve animal welfare while allowing more uniform application of EU rules in Member States.

MEPs' amendments are chiefly intended to clarify the rules so they can be more easily applied and protect animals effectively, to prevent red tape and to ensure that imports comply with EU standards.

Stunning before death, except for religious slaughter
MEPs approved the principle that animals must be slaughtered only using methods that ensure death instantly or after stunning, except in the case of religious rituals, for which they called for the current blanket exemption to be preserved rather than allowing for exemptions to be decided at national level. An amendment by the rapporteur calling for special labelling of products of religious slaughter was rejected, as were calls by other Members for stunning to be made compulsory before animals throats are cut, something which religious communities oppose.

Avoiding practices that cause unnecessary suffering
To prevent unnecessary suffering, MEPs voted in favour of restraining animals only if the person responsible for stunning or killing it is ready to perform his task, and for bleeding to start as soon as possible after stunning to ensure the animal does not regain consciousness before death.

In addition, the committee approved the introduction of indicators to detect signs of consciousness or sensibility in animals during killing operations, so as to check the reliability of stunning procedures.

Clarifying responsibilities, cutting red tape
While MEPs were in favour of the appointment of an animal welfare officer for each slaughterhouse, they stressed that responsibility for ensuring compliance with the rules must lie with the operator or company, not with an individual employee who cannot oversee enforcement of the rules. But to ensure small slaughterhouses remain viable, they argued that establishments slaughtering up to 50 livestock units per week or 150,000 units of poultry per year, should be exempted from this rule.

The committee also opposed the introduction of national reference centres in the Member States, the latter having already set up competent authorities.

Imports must comply with the rules too
The European Union's animal welfare rules are among the strictest in the world and this sometimes leads to higher production costs and distortions of competition with countries which are less careful in this area. MEPs therefore believe the Commission should ensure that meat and other animal products imported from non-EU countries meet European standards. They call for inspections to be carried out in abattoirs authorised to export to the European Union and attestations that EU standards have been met to be supplied in addition to the health certificates already required for imports.

In addition, the committee highlights the need to provide adequate EU funding for European producers in order to compensate for the competitive disadvantage they would suffer.

Lastly, MEPs call on the Commission to present by 1 January 2013 draft legislation on the use of mobile abattoirs.

[mikey]

Wednesday, March 18, 2009Print This Page
Tens of Thousands of Pigs Butchered for Galungan
INDONESIA - Balinese Hindus butchered more than 22,000 pigs yesterday, one day ahead of the Galungan religious festival, according to the Bali Animal Husbandry Agency.



Galungan, which celebrates the victory of Dharma (virtue) over Adharma (vice), falls on 17-19 March this year.

The slaughter is a part of a ritual ceremony, after which the meat is cooked and used in various local dishes, according to The Jakarta Post.

Head of the agency Ida Bagus Alit said with a total of 871,740 pigs on the island, the huge demand for pigs ahead of the ceremony could be fulfilled without having to import them.

"We cannot import pigs into Bali as we fear they may bring diseases and infect our local pigs," he said.

A live pig weighing 100 kilograms costs Rp 1.8 million (US$150), while the butchered meat costs Rp 32,000 per kilogram.

[mikey]

Thursday, March 19, 2009Print This Page
Livestock Diseases Continue to Plague Farmers
VIET NAM - Deputy Minister Diep Kinh Tan of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development yesterday asked Quang Nam authorities to prioritise prevention of blue-ear disease (or PRRS) among pigs.



Experts from the ministry would work with provincial authorities next week to discuss measures for controlling the disease, said Mr Tan.

The disease has continued to cause more difficulties in the central province over the past two weeks. Blue-ear disease had hit 31 communes in four districts, including Dien Ban, Que Son, Thang Binh and Duy Xuyen, he said.

Health authorities have brought various disease outbreaks among livestock under control in 12 cities and provinces during the past two weeks; according to the Department of Animal Health under the MARD.

Only eight provinces are still classified as affected. Under United Nations regulations, any are must be free of new outbreaks among livestock for 21 days before they can be declared safe.

The northern province of Quang Ninh and the southern province of Bac Lieu were both hit by bird flu and blue-ear disease.

Ca Mau, Soc Trang and Dien Bien provinces were also hit by bird flu, and pigs with blue ear disease were discovered in Quang Nam Province.

Cattle in Bac Can and Kon Tum provinces were hit by foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious disease among some types of cattle. It can prove fatal for humans who consume infected meat, although these cases are rare.

"The Department of Animal Health has asked sub-departments in affected provinces to vaccinate their livestock and poultry from now until the end of this month," said Dam Xuan Thanh, deputy director of the department.

Thanh said other provinces should strengthen their quarantine efforts to prevent sick animals from being transported into their localities.

Veterinary sectors in affected provinces were assigned the task of raising public awareness of the diseases, and of giving farmers guidance on raising and ensuring their animal's resistance to the diseases, he said.

The Binh Son District People's Committee in the central province of Quang Ngai plans to set up a temporary animal quarantine station on the Ky Ha-Khe Hai-Dung Quat road to control livestock transportation from other provinces, especially from Quang Nam.

The province has two other quarantine stations on Highway 1A in Binh Chanh Commune, Binh Son District, and on Highway 24B in Ba To District. Veterinary workers sterilise vehicles that transport domestic livestock along the road.

Son Tinh District authorities last Wednesday culled nearly 600kg of pigs transported from Quang Nam.

[mikey]

Thursday, March 19, 2009Print This Page
15 Arrested for Selling Pigs Fed Banned Additives
CHINA - Prosecutors said yesterday that 15 people had been arrested in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, on charges of selling pigs that had been given fodder containing banned additives.



The additives were ractopamine and clenbuterol, officials from the People's Procuratorate of Guangzhou City told a news briefing here.

The fifteen will face charges involving the production and marketing of substandard, toxic and harmful food, the prosecutors said. The charges could mean prison terms of up to five years for those found guilty.

Officials began an investigation after Guangzhou reported 70 cases of clenbuterol poisoning beginning 18 February. Ractopamine poisoning cases were also reported, but no number was released.

The suspects were arrested in the districts of Haizhu, Tianhe, Baiyun and Huadu in Guangzhou, as well as Zengcheng, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou, between 10 February and 17 March.

The prosecutors did not say when the trial starting date.

Ractopamine and clenbuterol help pigs produce leaner pork. The latter chemical is banned as an additive in pig feed in China because it can be harmful and even fatal to humans.

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Thursday, March 19, 2009Print This Page
Swine Fever Confirmed in South Russian Region
RUSSIA - An outbreak of African swine fever has been confirmed at a farm in southern Russia's Stavropol Region, the region's chief veterinary official said on Thursday.



Pigs began to die at the Lenin farm in the village of Kievka, in the Apanasenkovsky District, on March 15, and preliminary tests suggested an outbreak of the disease. Further tests earlier today confirmed the deaths had been caused by the African swine fever, reports RIA Novosti.

Some 50 pigs have so far died. Authorities have announced that all the animals at the farm are to be culled as a preventive measure.

There are a total of 189 pigs at the farm and 2,500 pigs in the village. The area has been quarantined, and the Emergency Situations Ministry has set up a local headquarters to control the spread of the virus.

This is the second outbreak of African swine fever in the Stavropol Region this year. In January, the virus was confirmed at a farm in the Kursky District. As a result, 2,600 pigs were slaughtered. Some 5,000 pigs were also culled or died from the virus this summer in Russia's North Ossetia.

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Friday, March 20, 2009Print This Page
Shuanghui: 24 Per Cent Rise in Full Year Net Income
CHINA - Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co (HSIDC), the listed arm of China's biggest meat processor Shuanghui Group, yesterday posted a 24 per cent increase in 2008 net profit, thanks to robust meat sales and improved inventory control and production management.



Net income rose to 699 million yuan, or 1.15 yuan per share, while sales climbed 19 per cent from a year ago to 26 billion yuan, the company said in its earnings report.

The shift from soaring live pig prices, which hit a record high in the first half of last year, to the slack demand for meat products in the second half caused by the economic slump "exerted great pressure on the business", the company said.

The company, based in Central China's Henan province, slaughtered 3.17 million live pigs last year, down 16.36 per cent from a year earlier, while its processed meat products totaled 834,000 tons, the Shenzhen-listed company said.

Improved inventory management and measures such as energy-saving and joint bulk procurement helped the company reduce negative impact on its business performance last year, the meat processor said.

Shares of Shuanghui Investment yesterday climbed 2.43 per cent to close at 32 yuan in Shenzhen trading.

"The results are generally in line with our estimates and the company is likely to maintain such dynamic growth momentum this year," said Peng Danxue, a senior food industry analyst at Everbright Securities.

Falling pork prices and rising meat sales, Mr Peng said, will drive Shuanghui's business performance this year as its main profit stream comes from its frozen meat products.

The meat processor, in which US bank Goldman Sachs and Cayman Islands-registered CDH Investment have a combined 51.45 per cent stake, said it will spend 300 million yuan to expand its frozen meat production capacity and projects.

Meat production is expected to register 3 to 5 per cent annual growth until 2010, according to the China Meat Association.

Total number of live pigs is forecast to reach 730 million next year and meat output will amount to 87 million tons, of which 14 million will be processed, the industry association said.

Shuanghui will eye both domestic and international markets and improve its product mix to maintain its leading position in the country, it said.

Company Setting Out to Expand
Shuanghui said it will spend almost 3 billion yuan (US$439 million) on acquisitions and expansion this year as the financial stifles affect operations of smaller rivals.

The investment, 50 per cent more than last year’s, will be used to build or acquire slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants, said Chairman Wan Long. "The financial crisis is a great opportunity."

China’s consumer spending grew at the slowest pace in two years as economic expansion slowed to a seven-year low and 20 million rural migrant workers lost their jobs. Still, Premier Wen Jiabao said the country’s 8 per cent growth target is achievable with the 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package.

"I’m confident” that the stimulus policies will work and the demand of 1.3 billion people for meat is still huge," Mr Wan said. There will be a decline in meat consumption in cities as workers return to the countryside but “overall it won’t decline by much,” he said.

The cheaper price of pork, which has plunged by about 40 per cent from a record high last year, should spur consumption again, Wan said. The number of pigs slaughtered in China last year rose 7.6 per cent from a year ago to 608 million head, while stocks as of December had increased 5.2 per cent from a year ago to 463 million, data from the Ministry of Agriculture showed.

Shuanghui, which is about 70 per cent owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, and rival China Yurun Food Group Co are expanding as consumers are encouraged to buy meat in supermarkets instead of traditional wet markets because of food-safety concerns. China Yurun in November said it plans to double capacity over the next two years.

The company's full-year profit may rise by 52 per cent to 3.2 billion yuan this year because of lower water, electricity and gas costs while sales may grow to 40 billion yuan from 35 billion yuan last year, Wan said. The company’s sales may jump to 50 billion yuan in 2010, he said.

The company will sell 3 million tons of meat products this year, compared with 2.5 million last year.

“Our sector has endured all sorts of hardships,” including blue ear disease and record pork prices in 2007-08, he said. The current financial crisis “isn’t the worst.”

[mikey]

Friday, March 20, 2009Print This Page
BPEX and EBLEX Strenghten Meat Export Team
GLOBAL - Two new agents have been appointed by EBLEX and BPEX to cover Spain and Germany.

 

Sonia Palomo is the agent for Spain, based in Madrid working on a part-time basis. Ms Polomo has a wealth of experience in the meat industry.

In Germany, Susanne Müllem is the new agent and she will also be working on a part time basis.

Ms Müllem worked in the EBLEX and BPEX export department in Milton Keynes for two years before returning to her native Germany.

Export Manager Jean-Pierre Garnier said: “Both Sonia and Susanne have great experience on which we can draw and they will both be able to make a valuable contribution to our work in Spain and Germany.”

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Friday, March 20, 2009Print This Page
OIE and WTO Bond Tightens for Animal Health
GLOBE - During a visit by Mr Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to the OIE Headquarters in Paris, the leaders of the two organisations further emphasised the benefits to the international community of the animal health standards published by the OIE.



Dr Bernard Vallat, Director General of the OIE, stated that “a large majority of the standards adopted by OIE Member Countries and Territories are designed to prevent sanitary risks linked with the world trade in animals and animal products. This trade is indispensable, especially to supply the poorest countries with animal protein, including in times of crisis. Yet compliance with OIE standards also results in the improvement of veterinary health governance in each Member country and territory, and in so doing improves animal health and welfare throughout the world, while at the same time improving public health by preventing and controlling animal diseases transmissible to humans.”

The two organisations also raised the need for joint discussions on how to avoid the potential disadvantages arising from the use of “private” standards relating to sanitary risks, since such standards have not been adopted within the framework of the SPS Agreement and may contradict existing public standards democratically adopted by the OIE and the Codex Alimentarius Commission in a fully transparent procedure and based on scientific evidence.

The OIE also referred to its standard-setting work in the field of animal welfare and the rise in stricter consumer demands in this respect in all countries of the world.

In the field of improving the competencies of stakeholders in all countries of the world on international sanitary rules applicable to trade, the WTO and the OIE reaffirmed their commitment to the Doha Declaration issued by the WTO, OIE, WHO, the World Bank and FAO, and to the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) to help developing countries fulfil the requirements of the SPS Agreement.

“The value of the WTO organising information and training seminars in all regions with the OIE for the benefit of Veterinary Service officials, and especially those in charge of sanitary certification of animals and animal products for export, is now a well established fact. These seminars should be continued, along with the allocation of STDF grants aimed at facilitating the preparation of national or regional projects to strengthen the sanitary safety of international trade and market access opportunities for all those that so wish”, declared Pascal Lamy.

Lastly, the two organisations reiterated their shared interest in strengthening collaboration in order to facilitate the settlement of sanitary disputes, notably by making more frequent use of the OIE mediation procedure.


 

[mikey]

Friday, March 20, 2009Print This Page
CME: US Pork Supplies Likely to Contract in Q2
US - CME's Daily Livestock Report for 19 March 2009.



It is broadly expected that US pork supplies will contract significantly in the second quarter. We should get a better idea of how large the decline will be from the USDA quarterly inventory numbers, expected to be released on Friday, 27 March. Based on the December inventory data, implied Q2 hog slaughter is expected to be down as much as 5 per cent, a decline that is in part due to fewer Canadian hogs and feeder pigs entering the US market.

High feed costs in the last few years, a sharp appreciation of the currency (at least until last fall) and COOL legislation, all have negatively impacted hog producers in Canada, leading to a significant net reduction in the breeding herd as well as the number of hogs and pigs entering the US market. For the period 4 January-7 March 2009, US hog producers imported approximately 898,000 Canadian feeder pigs, almost half a million feeders less (-35 per cent) than the same period a year ago.

Imports of slaughter hogs are down even more as US packers have imported around 112,000 head so far this year, down some 460,000 head or 80 per cent compared to year ago levels. In total, imports of Canadian slaughter hogs and feeder pigs during the first nine weeks of the year is down by almost 1 million head, or 48 per cent lower than the same period a year ago. Due to the decline in such imports, we calculate that for the week ending 7 March, Canadian born hogs made up just 5.7 per cent of US total hog slaughter, compared to 8.5 per cent a year ago and 7.3 per cent average of the past five years.

We calculated this number based on entries of slaughter hogs from the previous week as well as a lagged imports of feeder pigs (allowing for the time they spend on feed before coming to market). While the reduction in feeder pigs numbers will likely be captured in the USDA inventory survey, the decline in slaughter hog imports will not. It is a factor that needs to be accounted for when looking at out front projections of hog slaughter based on the USDA survey data.

A much smaller breeding herd in Canada will limit the overall supply of feeder pigs coming into the US during much of 2009. Given the changes made to the COOL final rule, which just came into effect this week, the burden on US packers and producers is less significant than when it was initially put in place and should ease some the pressure on Canadian imports. However, there is lingering uncertainty as to what USDA may do next in terms of further revising COOL rules, especially if packers do not abide by the request from the USDA Secretary to “voluntarily” impose more explicit labels for meat products.