Pork Prices

[boarder42]

Anyone else noticed that all the pork at the grocery store is super cheap?  Its at a 5 year low and has been in free fall since august.  needless to say we have been eating more bacon/pulled pork/pork tenderloin/ everything pork. 

Anyone know why?

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=pork&months=120

[Stachetastic]

I don't have any insight as to why, but I know pork is frequently on the menu at our house. It is the cheapest in the meat case, aside from chicken legs and thighs. I stock up when it is on mark down, as well. My husband can come up with 1000 ways to prepare pork, so we never seem to get tired of it.

[MandalayVA]

I know that last year there was some sort of virus going around that affected pigs, but now production is way up so prices are low.  There's a lot of pork in my house too. 

[mrsggrowsveg]

I know there were several very large pork production farms approved in my state and a couple surrounding states.  I assume the addition of these Mega-farms has increase production and lowered the prices overall.

[Gone Fishing]

Waiting on $.99 boston butts.  When it happens I plan on buying 100+ lbs...

[RootofGood]

Waiting on $.99 boston butts.  When it happens I plan on buying 100+ lbs...

Just got some on clearance at $0.99.  They were at $2.00 for so long, we were about to just pay the price. 

We also bought a few dozen pounds of spiral sliced ham at $1/lb.  Mmmmmm cheap slightly healthier bacon replacement that's 10x cheaper (for post-cooked yield). 

[Gone Fishing]

Waiting on $.99 boston butts.  When it happens I plan on buying 100+ lbs...

Just got some on clearance at $0.99.  They were at $2.00 for so long, we were about to just pay the price. 

We also bought a few dozen pounds of spiral sliced ham at $1/lb.  Mmmmmm cheap slightly healthier bacon replacement that's 10x cheaper (for post-cooked yield).

Where?!

[RootofGood]

Where?!

Food Lion.

I've also seen sub-$2 pork loins at Kroger lately.

We eat a lot of pork.  :)  Having massive hog farms 50 miles away probably helps keep prices low, and we're eating "local" (whatever that means). 

[Gone Fishing]

Where?!

Food Lion.

I've also seen sub-$2 pork loins at Kroger lately.

We eat a lot of pork.  :)  Having massive hog farms 50 miles away probably helps keep prices low, and we're eating "local" (whatever that means).

Yeah, must have been a local thing.  I have been watching the circulars like a hawk.  I gave $1.69/lb for a butt 2-3 weeks ago just because I couldn't go with out BBQ any longer and it was the best I had seen in a while.  They have country style ribs for $1.49/lb this week which are usually sliced out of a butt.  I might have to get a pack to tide me over:)

[GuitarStv]

I've found that pork tends to be the cheapest meat.  A few times a year it will get super cheap and it's a good time to stock the deep freeze.

[RootofGood]

Yeah, must have been a local thing.  I have been watching the circulars like a hawk.  I gave $1.69/lb for a butt 2-3 weeks ago just because I couldn't go with out BBQ any longer and it was the best I had seen in a while.  They have country style ribs for $1.49/lb this week which are usually sliced out of a butt.  I might have to get a pack to tide me over:)

Our FL has $1.49 country style ribs and $1.69 boston butts this week.  The country style ribs can be cut from the butt for sure.  I heard the meat dept manager telling the butcher to take the boston butts that weren't selling in the back and slice them into country style ribs so they could charge more for them lol. 

I just sliced up ~15 lbs of boston butt into "ribs" (ie strips of meat about 1" thick and 3-5" long), marinated then cook on high heat.  Mmmmm.

[sheepstache]

Ha! I have been dining on hamsteak and pork chops but didn't realize the good deals were, like, a nation-wide thing.

I did notice ground beef is super expensive now. Is it just my area? It's like $4-$5/lb. Not organic or grass-fed or anything, just regular. There's probably an economic term for this, but I thought it might be because so many people turned to ground beef as a cheap "cut" and got in the habit of using it, that now they can raise the prices. Because people's recipe repertoire is sort of dependent on it now (meat loaf, Hamburger Helper, etc.). I went to make the chili featured on Joshua Kennon and was like, "Damn." I ended up "splurging" on turkey for $3-something.

[Bob W]

Ha! I have been dining on hamsteak and pork chops but didn't realize the good deals were, like, a nation-wide thing.

I did notice ground beef is super expensive now. Is it just my area? It's like $4-$5/lb. Not organic or grass-fed or anything, just regular. There's probably an economic term for this, but I thought it might be because so many people turned to ground beef as a cheap "cut" and got in the habit of using it, that now they can raise the prices. Because people's recipe repertoire is sort of dependent on it now (meat loaf, Hamburger Helper, etc.). I went to make the chili featured on Joshua Kennon and was like, "Damn." I ended up "splurging" on turkey for $3-something.

Don't know a lot about it, but I think beef is up because the US cattle herd is the smallest in like 50 years.  This is due in part to the sell off of heards with the recent multi year droughts. 

Pork on the other hand is a short term factory product. There was a virus last year effecting the supply but that must be over now.   Grain supplies are plentiful and cheap so it would be cheap to feed pigs.   

I love pork.   

[forward]

Anyone else noticed that all the pork at the grocery store is super cheap?  Its at a 5 year low and has been in free fall since august.  needless to say we have been eating more bacon/pulled pork/pork tenderloin/ everything pork. 

Anyone know why?

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=pork&months=120

Last year there was significant concern over 'porcine endemic diarrhea virus' PED or PEDV.  It hit a few production herds very hard causing significant loss but it was not that widespread in the US so it didn't impact overall production that much.  It poses no danger to humans or food safety, but it causes mortality in young pigs.  It was isolated and it didn't spread, though there is still a lot of work going on it.  But one impact was that it reduced the ability to export to other countries at least temporarily.  Thus supply in the US has gone up.

Additionally, last year was a record year grain production which caused feed costs to go down significantly. 

Hence, inexpensive pork for the time being. 

[boarder42]

well its great i picked up 10 $1.29/lb butts getting some ribs for under 2bucks a lb this week and pork chops are down to 1.49/lb this week .

[hodedofome]

I've pretty much stopped buying beef. Can't justify the expense anymore when chicken and pork is so much cheaper.

[sheepstache]

I've decided I like the Trading Places explanation better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI4fVgVVpiw

(If you know the scene I'm talking about you probably don't need to re-watch it and if you haven't seen the movie you should probably just watch the whole thing.)

[forward]

I've decided I like the Trading Places explanation better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI4fVgVVpiw

(If you know the scene I'm talking about you probably don't need to re-watch it and if you haven't seen the movie you should probably just watch the whole thing.)

Thats hilarious sheepstache!  gi joe with the kung fu grip!