There is an excess of pork in the sense that the profit margins for the producers are too small. It’s slowly being ‘corrected’, but with each producer making his own decision it may take some time. Everybody has a lot of fixed overhead, and so producing an extra 5% costs only the cost of production, and everyone in farming is an optomist about future prices. Knowing that, I don’t see production falling, except as those who are driven out of business don’t send hogs to market.
Then, those production facilities will be picked up by new optomistic owners, and we’ll see the cycle continue.
I buy pork chops now, I used to be a producer, and they are dirt cheap at the meat counter.
Transportation (fuel)costs are going to be a signifcant factor. It cost more to harvest the corn, more to haul it to the grain handling, more to truck hogs to market, ets, etc.
Not sure if the retailers are taking a bigger profit, but my sense is that they’re not.
That’s not a very concise answer, but I hope it helps.
An FYI: Food prices, as a percent of the average persons income, have fallen 40% in the last 40 years.
Eat up!
Just read this and it may have something to do with the high price of bacon.
“Pork-Belly Market May Go Belly-Up”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2651725/posts