000702 Hog Farmers to Government: “Keep Prices Up”July 3, 2000Washington - Hog farmers, enjoying their highest prices in almost three years, want the government to keep the good times going by buying pork and slapping high tariffs on imports from Europe. Pork prices plunged to $16 per hundred pounds in December 1998, less than half a typical producer's cost of production, then rose above $50 this spring for the first time since the third quarter of 1997. Government help is “critically needed to help support the hog market now in anticipation of seasonal price declines this fall,” the National Pork Producers Council said in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman that the group released. Among other things, the farmers want the Clinton administration to target Danish pork ribs in a trade battle with the European Union. The United States has been putting punitive tariffs on a range of European goods in retaliation for EU restrictions on imports of bananas and beef. Under legislation that Congress passed recently, the administration is required to review the EU products it has targeted with the aim of rotating items every six months. Farm groups pushed for the change on the ground that spreading the pain to more producers would bring more pressure to bear on the EU to drop its barriers to the import of American beef produced with growth hormones and to bananas produced on American-run plantations in the Caribbean and South America. U.S. hog farmers also want the Agriculture Department to accelerate purchases of U.S. pork and to create a stockpile of canned pork to ship to areas with malnutrition and to scenes of natural disasters. When Hurricane Mitch struck Central America in 1998, farmers said they had nothing to offer but live pigs. “USDA should recognize that this situation could occur at any time and act now so that canned pork would be available before emergency relief efforts are needed,” said Craig Jarolimek, president of the producers group. “When a crisis occurs, it is already too late to secure the product.” USDA officials had no immediate comment Monday on the farmers' requests. Hog farmers said pork prices could dip into the mid- to low $30s range this fall, partly because of a drop in domestic slaughter capacity. The Agriculture Department projects prices will average $40 to $44 per hundred pounds during the last three months of this year and $42 to $46 during the first quarter of 2001. Farmers need about $35 per hundred pounds to cover their cost of production, USDA economist Leland Southard said.
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