Bacon lovers, it's time to start being bacon hoarders. It's been a whirlwind journey for pork belly prices: although price tags reached its peak last year, it also decreased a five-year low on April this year.
Whenever bacon reaches its demanding seasons, it comes to no surprise that the prices go up as well. In fact, this is has already become a staple pricing strategy during the summer, because of barbecues popping up left and right.
Furthermore, Bloomberg News notes that bacon helps increase sales in fast food chains like McDonald's and Wendy's whenever they're offering special items on their menus.
"It's really demand that's driving this. More people are putting bacon on anything," says Ryan Turner, a risk management consultant for FCSTone Group in Kansas City.
Bloomberg further notes:
"One reason for this enthusiasm for all things bacon is that, at least until recently, it was relatively cheap and plentiful, according to Brian Grete, editor of the Professional Farmers of America newsletter in Cedar Falls, Iowa."
Although pork belly prices showed a continued decrease earlier in the year, beef prices reached a record high in May 2015. In addition, pork prices reached a high in 2014 when a virus caused the death for over eight million piglets. Farmers had to expand their output after the occurrence.
However, this year's pork prices aren't expected to remain too long given that summer's coming to an end and pork belly demand diminishes, as noted by Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities Inc. in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Production of pork actually had a 15 percent increase in June, from its previous year. As of Friday, pork production costs $1.6968 per pound, which is a one-year high.
Since bacon is a part of daily life now, it's best to be wise and keep a massive stock on hand - especially now that it's a great time to invest in a lot of bacon while they're all over the market.
