U.S. bacon prices are poised to retreat from an all-time high as the fad that put the meat into everything from muffins to milkshakes wanes and pork supply rebounds after last year’s historic drought.
Retail bacon jumped 23 percent to $5.708 a pound this year, the highest since at least 1980, government data show. Pork bellies, cured and sliced to make bacon, account for a record share of the value of a hog as demand growth outpaced other cuts, according to the National Pork Board. Production shrank this year after last season’s drought, the worst since the 1930s, increased costs for corn, the main feed grain.
That’s reversing as this year’s 38 percent plunge in corn prices returns pig farmers to profit, sends hog weights to an all-time high and pork output to a record in 2014. Pork-belly prices plunged 23 percent since the end of September, and hog futures will fall 14 percent next year to the lowest since October 2012, according to the median of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That may help ease prices for bacon, which is appearing on more menus even as chefs say the trend is fading.
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