Pork Producers Advised to Take Advantage of Excellent Forward Contracting Opportunities

The Director of Risk Management with HAMS Marketing Services is advising pork producers to take advantage of excellent opportunities to lock in profitable forward contracting prices. Disruptions in the supply chain caused by COVID-19 throughout 2020 negatively impacted the price producers received for their hogs resulting, for example, in losses ranging from 20 to 30 to 40 dollars per pig in June-July.

 

Tyler Fulton, the Director of Risk Management with HAMS Marketing Services, says early evidence suggests 2021 will be a lot better and, right now, producers are very active in hedging the summer months.

 

 

We know that we can expect a fairly large U.S. hog slaughter over the next two months with expected weekly kills of around 2.6 million hogs. To put that into perspective, compared to three years ago, that's a 10 percent jump for that time frame.

 

It's not typically the peak season by any stretch but what we know is that we've been on a fairly good stretch of growth and that maybe it's this year coming up that we'll start to see a little bit of moderation in that trend and, hopefully as a result, see some more sustained higher prices into the fall months.

 

So producers need to be keeping tabs and even keep a benchmark as to their expectations for this fall and the latter half of 2021 and be prepared to cover off some of that price risk by taking forward contracts for example at hopefully profitable levels.

Video: Food Inflation and Pork Demand - Dr. Sylvain Charlebois

In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Professor and Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, discusses how food inflation is reshaping Canadian protein demand. He explains why pork remains competitively priced, consumer behavior, and why transparency, AI-assisted shopping, and protein demand will matter in the years ahead. Listen now on all major platforms!

"The potential of pork is there. We just need to see the product assume that role and take it away because all the elements are there."

Meet the guest: Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in Dalhousie University's Faculty of Management and Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab. His research focuses on food distribution, food policy, food safety, food security, and traceability. Dr. Charlebois has written four books and more than 500 peer-reviewed and scientific articles. He holds a BComm from the Royal Military College, an MBA from UQAM, and a DBA from the University of Sherbrooke. Learn more from Dr. Sylvain Charlebois on The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, available on all major platforms.