High Construction Costs Expected to Discourage Expanded Meat Production

A partner with Polar Pork says, despite the current profitable prices in the pork sector, high construction costs will keep a lid on increased protein production.

Due to stable production in the United States and Canada market hog prices have remained above average while shortages of early weaned pigs due to disease pressure in the U.S. and parts of Canada have resulted in periods of record prices.Florian Posssberg, a partner with Polar Pork, says, unless we have an unusual event, 2026 is shaping up to be a profitable year for the pork sector.

Quote-Florian Posssberg-Polar Pork:

I think meat demand is good. The cost of pork at the retail counter is almost one quarter of what it is for beef so that helps our sales as well. Because of the high cost of building new barns and expanding herds, there just isn't a lot of expansion going on in both Canada and the United States so the supply of pork is pretty stable.

We don't have profit levels that are going to see a lot of new hog barns going up or cattle herds expanding so there's not going to be a lot of new protein meats coming onto the market place to bring the price of meats down. We don't like to see food inflation affect the average family.

It would be nice if meat prices were lower in the grocery stores but, as farmers, we really don't have any control over that and we do want to make sure our families are well fed.

Possberg says right now we're in stable times and we can make a profit which is good for the industry.