Lean hog futures are declining between $1.125 to $2.35 as of Thursday. The USDA’s national base hog price was unavailable due to light trading volume, while the CME Lean Hog Index increased by 7 cents on March 17, reaching $91.93.
In the week ending March 12, export sales showed a significant increase in new pork business, totaling 28,284 MT, up 19.2% from the previous week. However, shipments dropped to a four-week low of 35,674 MT. The USDA reported a pork carcass cutout value of $98.77 per cwt, down 5 cents, with a federally inspected hog slaughter of 498,000 head on Wednesday, bringing the weekly total to 1.387 million head—89,000 less than the previous week but 49,896 more than the same week last year.
