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Iowa pork leader sees growing frustration with trade war

An Iowa pork industry leader sees growing frustration over the lingering trade war with China.

Mike Paustian is the president-elect of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

“I’m hoping it’s not going to turn into a giant game of chicken here to see who’s going to blink first,” Paustian says. It’s certainly not sounding encouraging that there’s going to be a quick resolution to this. We’ve kind of been teased several times that something was going to happen, and nothing’s happened yet. That’s where I think there’s some frustration building.”

Paustian, who has a farrow-to-finish hog operation near Walcott, Iowa, says it’s hard to make future plans with so much uncertainty.

“That’s kind of the most frustrating thing is everybody’s kind of playing the waiting game right now to see how things shake out, before they start pulling the trigger on some of their long-term investments,” he says.

Paustian spoke with Brownfield at the Iowa State Fair.