Pricey beef has hog farmers betting consumers will eat more pork

American hog farmers are betting cash-strapped consumers will grill more pork and eat more pepperoni as beef prices surge, feeding a turnaround for an industry that has been struggling for more than a year.

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The smallest US cattle herd since the 1950s is making beef too expensive for shoppers, who have seen prices climb month after month and mostly exhausted savings from the Covid-19 pandemic.

With a lot of pork to go around, producers are now banking on consumers ordering more sausage and pepperoni pizzas and on demand rising during the grilling season, with the July 4 Independence Day holiday approaching.

Pork producers have been under pressure as meat demand has not kept pace with supplies and higher crop prices made it more expensive to feed herds. Still, attendees at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, earlier in June expect the industry's fortunes to start turning, with more demand giving them the bump needed to further improve margins.

"I would ask that every American go out and buy as many pork chops as they can and share with their neighbours," said Mr Bryan Humphreys, chief executive of the National Pork Producers Council, a trade group representing hog farmers.