Bacon prices set to rise as key supply hits historic low
US — America’s doctors haven’t been able to curtail the country’s ever-expanding bacon consumption, but maybe high prices can do it for them.
The fatty and addictive substance chefs rely on to make basically every dish more delicious is set to become more expensive as supplies of the pork bellies that bacon comes from fall to historic lows.
In December 2016, frozen pork belly inventories were at 17.8 million pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture — just a third of their levels the year before. It’s the lowest level since 1957.
Pork belly prices, meanwhile, were up 23.8 percent from the year before, according to the USDA. And prices rose another 20 percent in just the first three weeks of January, said the nonprofit Ohio Pork Council.
It’s not lack of pigs that’s the culprit. Farmers today are “producing more pigs than ever,” Rich Deaton, the group’s president, told USA Today. “Today’s pig farmers are setting historic records,” he told the newspaper. “Yet our reserves are still depleting.”
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