The Rising Cost to Feed Animals Is Squeezing Meat Producers
Bloomberg 12/15/2020
(Bloomberg) The meat industry is starting to get squeezed from both sides.
China is rebuilding its hog herd faster than expected, boosting demand and prices for soybeans and corn used to feed animals. And with its herds growing quickly, China the world’s biggest consumer may soon need to import less meat.
That twin dynamic elevated feed costs and likelihood of smaller meat shipments to China in 2021 threaten to shrink profits for livestock and poultry farmers in the U.S, Brazil and elsewhere, as well as the companies that process the animals into meat. Even worse, producers are getting hit just as they begin emerging from the coronavirus pandemic that added costs and lowered domestic prices for animals.