Pork stockpiles in the U.S. rose 13 percent at the end of April from a year earlier, the government said, as adverse weather and high prices reduced demand. Warehouses held 545.8 million pounds of pork on April 30, up from 483.71 million a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report. Inventories fell 5 percent from the end of March, reports Bloomberg.

Heavy rainfall in parts of the Midwest has limited outdoor grilling opportunities.

“Greatly elevated pork prices and wet, chilly weather over large parts of the Midwest may have limited pork usage and forced product into freezers,” Dan Vaught, the owner of Vaught Futures Insights, said in an e-mailed note before the report.

As of April 30, stockpiles of pork bellies, which are cured and sliced to make bacon, rose 7.1 percent from a year earlier to 53.2 million pounds, according to today’s report. Warehouse supplies of ham rose 0.3 percent from a year ago to 76.7 million pounds.

Chicken-meat inventories at the end of April were 18 percent larger than a year earlier at 744.3 million pounds, the USDA said. Beef supplies rose 20 percent to 442.8 million pounds.

Source: Bloomberg