Jim Long President-CEO Genesus Inc.

U.S. Hog Market Gets Boost 

There was some life in the U.S. hog market last week with October Lean Hog Futures gaining $5.71. Pork carcass cut-outs closed Friday at $78.53, higher than its been for a while. Last Friday Iowa-Minnesota hog price averaged 75.01¢ lb. With August lean hog futures at 83.875¢ Friday the cash hog market needs to get some giddy up real soon. If we hit 83-84¢ it will do a lot for the financial where withal and attitude of producers. 

Packers have next to no Gross Margin (i.e. Cut-outs $78.53 – Iowa – Minnesota 75.01). The new and larger packer capacity has eroded margins. We expect Packers hope increased,  fall hog marketing’s will help gross margins. 

NPPC – GENE EDITING 

The National Pork Producers Council has recently launched a new campaign to broaden awareness and understanding of gene editing promises in swine genetics. The NPPC is all in for pushing gene editing. They don’t want the safeguard of the U.S. Federal Drug Administration to continue to have oversight but instead the USDA. 

In Europe Gene Editing will be by law Genetic Modified Organisms (GMO) and subject to all those rules.

The first Gene Edited type pig was developed at the University of Guelph (Canada) twenty years ago. It was called Enviropig. The pig population was maintained for over twenty years. No packer would sell the meat. None were ever eaten. The herd has been destroyed. Technology worked but was no market.

We asked a Packer a week ago if they would want to use Gene Edited Pigs – answer “Hell no”

Vice President McDonalds at NPIC 2018 we paraphrase “Don’t expect us to explain GMO – Gene Editing”. When the world’s largest restaurant chain gives the warning, good idea to pay attention. 14,000 restaurants worldwide.

Plant based meat is here, our reply is GMO-Gene Edited Pork? That’s not taking the natural high ground.  ABF free Pork, Gap Pork, Natural Pork – trendlines are away from technical farming’s but somehow do we think we can grow demand with GMO Pork?

We read where NPPC  supports GMO-Gene Editing. Where is the study that consumers will buy it. ? Will Packers buy it ? What happens if we lose 10-20% demand ? What happens if like Ractopamine (Paylean) countries want Pork certified free from GMO-Gene Edited Pork ? What happens to demand if Pork has to be labelled GMO-Gene Edited ? Ask your neighbor.  What sort of path are we going on ?

We are a Swine Genetic Company. We believe in genetic advantages. We use all the Genetic tools including Genomics that helps identify traits that improve production results. We know gene editing is possible. Our concern is what it does to Pork Demand.

NPPC seems on path to push this but as ask where are the studies that check consumers acceptance. For twenty years the NPPC pushed “the other White Meat” slogan backed by $1 billion in our check off money. In the twenty years pork demand flatlined and we lost huge market share in total meat consumption. The NPPC’s record on market understanding is spotty at best. Maybe some further thought should be put into the path we are going “Hopefully not a path to Demand Hell”.   

Categorised in: Featured News, Pork Commentary

This post was written by Genesus