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Bacon shortage

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by jdt, Aug 16, 2010.

  1. Aug 16, 2010 #1
    jdt

    jdt Smoking Fanatic SMF Premier Member

    Des Moines
    Found an article today that talked about bacon price increases due to supply, anyone notice this is their area?

    A year ago, 76.3 million pounds of pork bellies were in various commercial freezers around the country. In early August of this year, that storage figure had dropped to 35.4 million pounds.

    The problem could be seen last week in Des Moines Cold Storage's minus-26-degree freezer, where racks stood empty that normally would be filled with pork bellies.

    "Normally, we have 10 to 20 million pounds in storage here in our facilities," Muelhaupt said. "This week, we were down to 330,000 pounds."

    Damn I thought Iowans were corn fed LOL,
     
  3. Aug 16, 2010 #2
    alelover

    alelover Master of the Pit OTBS Member

    Concord, NC, near Mt. Pleasant, 2 houses past the
    Not yet. The Harris-Teeter grocery chain here was selling Smithfield bacon for Buy 2 get 3 free a couple weeks ago. Maybe that's why there's a shortage. Well not really. There has been a lot of drought and flooding this year. Perhaps that affected pork production.
     
  4. Aug 16, 2010 #3
    mballi3011

    mballi3011 Epic Pitmaster OTBS Member SMF Premier Member

    Atlantic Beach, RatTown, FL
    [​IMG]

    I haven't heard or seen any slowdown in the bellies at my butcher guy. Everytime I go and get bellies he has plenty to chose from. Heck he let's me go back into the walk-in and chose which one I want.
     
  5. Aug 16, 2010 #4
    ak1

    ak1 Master of the Pit OTBS Member

    Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada
    I've seen no problems locally yet.
     
  6. Aug 16, 2010 #5
    rdknb

    rdknb Master of the Pit OTBS Member SMF Premier Member

    Chester (Kent Island), Md
    Here we are seeing the prices go way up.  Cheapest price was 3.99 or if you can get 2 for 7.00
     
  7. Aug 16, 2010 #6
    meateater

    meateater Legendary Pitmaster SMF Premier Member

    Hendertucky, Nv.
    Just bought a belly for 1.99 a pound. No more store bought for me. [​IMG]
     
  8. Aug 16, 2010 #7
    scarbelly

    scarbelly Epic Pitmaster OTBS Member

    Fallbrook CA
    Man that is a great price for belly - I have a hard time getting belly at all and the last one cost me $2.49 but the difference is just amazing in quality - you are hooked now
     
  9. Aug 17, 2010 #8
    Bearcarver

    Bearcarver SMF Hall of Fame Pitmaster Group Lead OTBS Member

    Macungie, PA
    Some of the news we hear about commodities is made up "BS". Traders buy up a whole lot of futures, then put out the news about a shortage. Then people panic, and buy, buy, buy. That pushes the prices up. Then the guy who pushed the "shortage" news sells his with a big profit.

    Such as:

    "Hijackers (Guerillas) hit coffee convoy for 4th straight day in Central America". [​IMG]

    "Fruit Fly devastates Florida orange crop". [​IMG]

    Sometimes the news is real, but I'm sure you can always find a cold storage facility that is either empty or busting out at the gills, or an empty grain elevator if you want to.

    Just my 2 cents,

    Bear
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2010