Posted on 07/04/2018 11:23:56 AM PDT by Poison Pill
U.S. pork producers are about to be bitten by a second batch of hefty retaliatory tariffs from China and Mexico — and that has some large producers predicting they could lose big money and be forced to invest overseas.
Executives say the pork industry has been expanding in recent years, in part on the expectation of export opportunities that would continue to support growth. However, the threat of a trade war is adding uncertainty and driving fear.
"We put a halt on all investment, not just because we will be losing money, but because we don't know if growing in the U.S. is the right move if we won't be an exporting country," said Ken Maschhoff, chairman of Maschhoff Family Foods and co-owner of the nation's largest family-owned pork producer.
Maschhoff said the farm industry has been "asked to be good patriots. We have been. But I don't want to be the patriot who dies at the end of the war. If we go out of business, it's tough to look at my kids and the 550 farm families that look us into the eye and our 1,400 employees."
Mexico imposed a 10 percent tariff on chilled and frozen pork muscle cuts effective June 5, and that import tax is set to double to 20 percent on Thursday.
China, meantime, is scheduled to start collecting an additional 25 percent import duty Friday on American pork products as it targets $34 billion worth of U.S. goods in response to President Donald Trump's action against Beijing for alleged intellectual property theft.
China also is set to add tariffs this week on U.S. soybeans, corn, wheat, cotton, whiskey and dairy, as well as U.S. autos. Nearly $20 billion in U.S. agricultural exports went to China last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
How long do you figure these farmers can run significantly below break even?
...says the guy who farm isn't on the line?
They don't tell the rest of the story. They are damn sure ignorant of the cyber theft China continues to engage in.
Note to US pork farmers: A lot of you shouldn’t have been so keen to get rid of COOL for your pork. I’d be happier to pay more for pork (and beef) that I knew came from the US.
And, yes, farmers, that was a hint.
I heard the US is sending David Hogg to negotiate.
He’ll hit a home run diplomatically.
Maybe an “inside the pork home run” but it still counts.
Exactly
That’s what happens when your business is based on subsidies and perpetual debt. Granted, it’s not ALL the farmer’s fault as food stuff has become overly regulated and bought out by Big AG. Hard for the small to mid sized farm to sustain. There’s an old saying though. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Put another way; don’t sell one solitary product to one solitary market. When I had a business, business would drop to almost nothing for 3-4 months out of every year. Likewise, there can be recessions. Being a business owner means being prepared for that sort of thing. If you’re making $50k per year but perpetually in debt to the tune of $500k per year, not sustainable. Find a new business or go work for someone.
This does seem to be spurring some diversification. It looks like the ones who will be investing will be doing it oversees. Just like Harley Davidson.
I have five racks of baby backs in the charcoal smoker.
Jeeeeeez...I would ONLY buy American made pork products. I would never want to risk consuming worm eaten chinese or mexican pork goods. Who would even consider it?!?!?
Oh boy just give them more subsidies I guess.
Smaller pig farmers are not under the same “threat” as this large scale pig guy. He’s selling to China not the US.
He’ll have to adjust markets.
Or Trump and China will come to a new trade agreement
I lived in China. The local don’t eat their domestic pork if they can avoid it. They’ll pay the extra.
“Maschhoff said the farm industry has been “asked to be good patriots. We have been. But I don’t want to be the patriot who dies at the end of the war.”
Laughable. This good Patriot has lobbied constantly the flood the country with Mexicans.
How do you know where your pork muscle comes from? Groceries don’t have to provide the info, and our local ones haven’t exactly been forthcoming with the info. And our butcher shops went belly up a while ago.
He's already doing that. He's investing in overseas production like Harley Davidson is doing.
These farmers may hurt for a little while. Then things will change. Trump is not a protectionist. He is interested in equalizing with the tariffs imposed by other nations on AMerican exports until those other nations understand that no tariffs is a better deal all around than tariffs. Actually, we did very well for decades letting the rest of the world tax our exports much more than we taxed theirs because the American worker in the American industrial milieu is much more productive per dollar of input(wage, overhead, taxation) than that $1 an hour fellow in Malaysia. But then our own governments\ loaded up American industry with a heavy overdose of regulation which is very costly to the point that the American worker can no longer compete with the Malaysian.DJT has embarked on fixing a lot of that. It requires Congress to dissolve the whole system- abolish departments, etc. and reduce business taxes and Cap Gains, ideally to nothing. If that is done then the once-American industries and every other country’s industry will be trying to relocate to America as fast as they can.
last I checked, the Chinese like their pork.
Gotta take the Sweet with the Sour!
The Chinese tariffs on pork means more bacon, ribs and sausage for me.
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