America loves its bacon, and that love is pushing pork belly prices to record highs. Prices for the part of the hog that’s used to make bacon have jumped roughly 80 percent higher this year. This comes in spite of frozen reserves at a low not seen in sixty years. Market research firm Nielsen says Americans bought 14 percent more bacon in stores during 2016 than they did in 2013. “The consumer has simply woken up to the joys of having bacon on more and more things,” says Arlan Suderman, Chief Commodities Economist at FC Stone. A Market Watch Dot Com article says bacon no longer takes a back seat to the more prized cuts like pork chops and tenderloins. Over the past ten years, bacon popped on menus across the country on everything from BLTs to breakfast specials. As an example, fast food chain Arby’s recently introduced a series of triple-thick bacon sandwiches. Bacon-themed festivals have popped up across the country as well.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.