Pork stockpiles in the United States rose 16 percent this July from a year earlier, as production increased and demand dropped due to rising prices. Bloomberg reports that warehouses held 453.9 million pounds of the meat on July 31, up from 391.2 million a year earlier, according to the USDA.
On Aug. 8, wholesale pork reached $1.1019 a pound, the highest since at least October 1997, USDA data show. High prices pushed shoppers toward cheaper meats, said Dan Vaught, the owner of Vaught Futures Insights in Altus, Ark.