Market News & Headlines >> Cold Storage Report Bearish for Pork, Beef

Tuesday afternoon’s USDA monthly Cold Storage report held bearish news for both the pork and beef markets, pegging U.S. frozen pork stocks at a record high for the end of August and showing larger-than-expected beef stocks in U.S. coolers.

USDA pegged Aug. 31 frozen pork stocks at 656.3 million pounds, up 3.6% from a month earlier and 20.7% from a year earlier. Stocks were well above the previous record for the end of August, which was 585.5 million pounds set in 2012, and also topped pre-report trade estimates of 642.7 million and 650.0 million pounds reported by Dow Jones Newswires.

Frozen pork belly stocks were tight at the end of August at 13.7 million pounds, down nearly 10 million from a month earlier and down 70% from a year earlier. However, frozen ham stocks were higher than expected at 237.5 million pounds, up 15.6% from a month earlier and 32.3% from a year earlier.

Aug. 31 frozen beef stocks were reported by USDA at 470.4 million pounds, up 2.4% from a month earlier and a hefty 35.7% from a year earlier. End-August frozen beef stocks also topped pre-report trade estimates averaging 440.1 million pounds and were the largest for the date since 2007.

Frozen poultry stockpiles, on the other hand, tightened during August with Aug. 31 frozen broiler chicken stocks at 593.8 million pounds, down 18.6% from a month earlier and 13.2% from a year earlier. Aug. 31 broiler stocks were the lowest on record, but USDA data for broilers only goes back only to 2003. Frozen turkey stocks as of Aug. 31 were marginally larger than a month earlier, but were 14.7% below a year earlier and were the lowest for the date since 1986.