Pork was a lot less expensive in my area until recently.

I think there was a massive killoff because of the pig viruses they were struggling with.

Now, there is apparently less pork.

I don't buy pork often enough to judge, but since you asked, I checked the price of pork shoulder and it's on sale for $1.69. And my target price, when making pulled pork, has been "under $2.00" for as many years as I've been making pulled pork.

Thin cut pork loin in the fridge (using in place of veal for piccata) $3.49. No idea what I've paid in the past but it didn't raise my eyebrows.

LI,NY prices.

Deldup

This post was edited by foodonastump on Mon, Sep 8, 14 at 20:09

Yes, there has been a big problem with something called PED, porcine epidemic diarrhea. It came from China, and pigs in North America have no immunities, having never been exposed to it before. The adults seem to be able to recover but the piglets almost invariably die of dehydration. The cost of a 40 pound feeder pig to raise has gone from about $40 to $100 or more.

Fortunately, pigs grow fast. Vaccines are being worked on, of course, but as mother pigs are exposed and create antibodies, they pass those on to their babies. A pig's gestation period is, I was always told, 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. I can raise that 40 pound feeder pig to 240 in 5 months or less.

So, yes, there's a problem, but it's only with pigs of a specific age and size. What I have seen locally is the influx of larger/older hogs into the food stream as it became so financially beneficial to sell the animal as pork that breeders were selling animals they had originally planned to keep as breeding stock.

Here a whole pork loin is on sale for $1.99, but you have to buy the entire loin, about 10 pounds. Center cut chops are $3.49 a pound but bacon is $5.89!

Annie

This post was edited by annie1992 on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 18:14

We just bought a whole pork loin and paid $1.99/lb. That's what we usually pay. I cut it up into chops and roasts and freeze it.

Annie,

That makes perfect sense now why the smaller the pig, the higher the price. I guess pork in the grocery store hasn't gone up like the small whole pigs have. Thank you for the info.

Kim

We eat a lot of pork so I have noticed the price increases on some cuts. Once I heard about PED, I started to stock up on sales.

Like the two Annies above, I can get the whole loin for $1.99/# even at Costco. Bone in chops are going for $2.49/# when in the past I could get them for a dollar a pound less. Pork shoulder/butt is high this year, going at 2.39. The old Safeway chain, now closed here, would sell variety chop family packs for $.99/#. Sure miss that one! And brats, Italian and Polish sausage have gone up also.

But the price is still better than beef prices!

During the drought here, many pig farmers liquidated their pigs--sold them cheaply--and pork was very inexpensive. This summer, prices have gone up 20% from that low.

We don't eat a lot of pork - I occasionally buy a whole tenderloin and cut it up into chops and roasts and freeze it. And occasionally some ribs or butt roast when it's on sale. What's killing me is the price of bacon. I've been shopping around for the best value. I've tried some different brands that way, some were horrible, some were great. The best I tried that was on sale briefly was the Cracker Barrel brand, man that is some good bacon.

Pork butt was $1.98 per pound a year ago here. It's $3.50 now. That cut has really gone up, for some reason, more than others.

OK, Peppi, I fixed it. LOL.

Annie

I noticed the first ripples of the PED virus back at Easter when Aldi sold out of hams. Since then, there has been a steady uptick in pork prices.

Went to the relatively expensive supermarket today, $1.99 for pork butt, not on sale. So again, "same as it's always been" as far as I'm concerned. However, now that it's been mentioned, I've definitely noticed that bacon has steadily increased in price over the past year or two. I had been attributing that to the increased obsession with bacon - can hardly find a vegan recipe without it these days it seems! - and pork belly in general.

"------Went to the relatively expensive supermarket today, $1.99 for pork butt, ---"

$1.99, used to be $1.49 a year ago. $0.99 on sale.

I have not seen pork on sale for a very long time. So it is a 100% jump in prices.

dcarch

I met with a large fast food chain yesterday and they are seeing +19% increase in pork and +5-6% in beef. So even a big commercial buyer is feeling it. Still, their typical food cost is around 30%, and most of the other food inputs are not rising/are declining, so the impact on their total cost of goods is modest. Maybe +1%.

I'm going to revive my experiments with cheap cuts and offal. it is fun and this is a good excuse.

This week's flyer is featuring pork loin center roast for $4.99/lb. I've never seen it that price before.

Rib or loin end roast or chops, 1.99. Center but bone-in chops, $2.99.

Last week boneless pork loin roast regularly $3.99/lb was $1.88 on sale at Kroger, bought two for the freezer.

We have a locally owned store that usually has very good sales and this week bone-in loin end chops are $1.59. These same chops, and country-style ribs, used to be on sale for $0.99/lb. Pork necks are $0.89 and never go on sale.

We haven't had good pork butt sales, lately, but a few months ago we got it for $0.99/lb. This is gulf coast Tx area.

Edit: Pork necks are $1.09...sheesh! I haven't bought them in a few months.

This post was edited by alex9179 on Sat, Sep 13, 14 at 14:00

Personally, I don't buy much pork, just enough bacon for use in seasoning bean dishes, but I would have to expect that the acquisition of Smithfield by Shuanghui last year would eventually have to have a noticeable effect on pork prices in the US.

Janet Yellen stated a few weeks ago that the rapid rise in food and fuel prices is inflation.
The Fed is talking about adding food and fuel "volatility" back in to the index and raising interest rates.
Wall Street has been awash in freshly minted dollars @ 0% interest and those dollars are starting to trickle down from Wall Street to Main Street.

Here is a link that might be useful

Here is a link that might be useful: INFLATION

This post was edited by lucky123 on Sat, Sep 13, 14 at 13:46