Pigs lie in a pen before being butchered at Smithfield Foods’ pork processing facility in Milan, Missouri on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. WH Group of Hunan acquired Virginia-based Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, in 2013 for US$6.95 billion. Photo: Bloomberg
America’s mountain of uneaten bacon is sitting in the freezers as farmers placed wrong bets on China’s demand for pork bellies
- More than 40 million pounds (18,000 metric tonnes) of pork bellies were sitting in refrigerated warehouses as of September 30, according to US government data, the most since 1971
- Bellies have seen a magnified inventory increase because demand is mostly domestic, unlike cuts such as ham, for which overseas buying can help reduce reserves
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Food and agriculture
Pigs lie in a pen before being butchered at Smithfield Foods’ pork processing facility in Milan, Missouri on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. WH Group of Hunan acquired Virginia-based Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, in 2013 for US$6.95 billion. Photo: Bloomberg