The top 40 sow owners in the U.S. will each lose more than $18 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic, projects Dermot Hayes, an economist with Iowa State University.
On Wednesday, Hayes joined host Chip Flory on “AgriTalk” to discuss USDA’s COVID-19 relief package and the pork market outlook.
The relief package includes $3 billion in planned agricultural product purchases and $1.6 billion in direct payments to hog farmers, including payment limitations of $125,000 per commodity and $250,000 per individual.
“It’s a joke. If you take all their hogs to market and then look at the reduction and the losses [the top 40 sow owners are] going to experience on those market hogs, they’re going to lose more than $18 million, every single one of them will lose more than $18 million because of this,” Hayes says. “They own two thirds of the hogs, so for them to get $125,000, it’s almost an insult. It’s just not going to help.”
Read more
The South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO) coordinates industry interventions and collaboratively manages risks in the value chain to enable the sustainability and profitability of pork producers in South Africa.
