With 2015 in its final months, U.S. pork production, in a rebound from the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, is 8-percent larger than a year ago and broiler chicken production is up by 4 percent, says the monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook. “The flip side of higher production is lower prices: 2015 hog prices have averaged 34 percent below prices of the first three quarters of 2014,” says the USDA report. Broiler prices are down by 10 percent for whole birds due to restrictions on exports. Dozens of countries curtailed or banned imports of U.S. poultry following the outbreak of avian influenza. Hardest hit by bird flu were chicken flocks laying eggs for table consumption and turkey flocks.
Egg production is down 5 percent while prices have climbed 36 percent. Turkey prices are up 6 percent from a year ago. Turkey production is forecast to recover in the second half of 2016; egg production should begin to recover in the second quarter, says USDA.