China's Shrinking Hog Herd Hits U.S. Corn Exports

China is working to reduce its hog herd due to an oversupply of pork, a move that is impacting us. Corn exports, Crossroads Co-op regional manager Brian Irey explains what may be driving the shift.

“We could talk for another hour about demand in China in terms of the hog herd, in terms of their general population sliding as far as it has. I look back to COVID and the massive amount of human casualties that they had in China from COVID, I still believe that number is understated by far. I mean, they have just literally fallen off of the map here the last couple of years in terms of corn exports, and that's directly related to the number of hogs that they have, and directly related to their population dropping because they just don't have the demand from their population for pork that they once had.”

Irey states that the drop in population has also played into China not importing more US corn, and since we're on the topic of pork, USDA reports that February pork exports totaled 574.24, million pounds, a 2.7% decline from January, but the fourth largest January volume on record. With today's Line on Agriculture report, I'm Lorrie Boyer.