Pig Meat: Situation and Outlook

摘要

High feed prices at the beginning of the year has seen contractions in the breeding pig herds in the US and EU. However, these have been offset by growth in Brazil, Russia and China and overall world pig meat production in 2008 is expected to increaseby one per cent. Reduced cereal prices in the second half of 2008 following record harvests around the world should lead to a decline in feed costs. However, increases in other input costs means the recovery in profitability may not be great enough to encourage continued increase in production.