Pork bellies are no longer the pig part the packer has trouble promoting.
Bacon, which is made from pork bellies, is now a premium part of the animal and its popularity recently sent pork belly futures prices to an all-time high.
“There has been a phenomenal change in … pork belly prices compared to other pork cuts in the last decade,” said University of Missouri meat market analyst Ron Plain.
“Years ago pork bellies were so low they were being ground for trimmings in order to minimize the amount the packing plants had to sell as bellies.
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“Pork bellies were a tremendous drag on the value of hogs.”
Bacon is now so popular that it is a premium-priced meat at the grocery store. The restaurant industry uses it in a wide range of meals.
“Bacon is now a condiment,” said James Robb, an analyst with the Livestock Marketing Information Centre in Colorado.
“You sprinkle it on salads. It goes on burgers just like mustard and ketchup.”
Robb said bacon demand greatly increased when food manufacturers and processors learned how to produce precooked bacon. The restaurant industry found that bacon could easily be heated in a microwave and added to dishes, rather than having to be cooked in a skillet.
Added to this ease-of-use, bacon benefited from the high protein, low carbohydrate diets that not only increased millions of people’s meat consumption, but also undermined the perception that bacon was unhealthy because of its high fat content.
No longer held back, hog belly prices surged.
“Today we get wholesale belly prices very close to wholesale loin prices,” said Plain, who estimated that pork bellies now sell five or 10 percent below loins.
Robb said he suspects pork bellies prices have peaked and will not increase much more in the near future.
The recent rise in prices may also short-circuit the usual summer rally for pork bellies.
“They may not increase seasonally this summer,” said Robb.
“This has been a very robust belly market.”
