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Marketing challenges for pork producers the rest of the year

A swine specialist says producers will encounter marketing challenges the remainder of the year as pork supplies grow.

Kent Bang with Compeer Financial tells Brownfield productivity has caught up to increased demand both domestically and internationally.

“And certainly as we look at trade policy and our ability to export pork and some of our pork producers is important to us being able to maintain and improve that economic outlook.”

He says profit opportunities could be limited the latter half of 2018.

“We generally get a rally in the summer as supply drops.  And I would look for that opportunity, not to hedge necessarily summer hogs, but to hedge fourth quarter pigs where we have the most difficulty in generating margins.”

Bang also recommends some options strategies to protect against possible catastrophic losses in the industry, while leaving some upside open if prices improve.