Overseas consumers help keep U.S. pork prices lower: Hayes

Dermot Hayes, distinguished professor, was quoted in an Oct. 30 Iowa Public Radio News story, "Sales Overseas Boost US Pork, Helping Defray 2020’s Challenges."

Those markets can add more than $7 per head to the total price a farmer gets for a pig, said Dermot Hayes, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. That’s because they complement the domestic consumers’ needs.

“We like the middle parts of the animal, the loin, tenderloin, the rib and the belly,” Hayes said, “and are not big consumers of picnics or butts or hams. In other words, the price of bacon here is kept lower by the demand for other parts of the pig in other places."