Pork shipments from a North Carolina pork processing plant are now blocked from entering Mexico. The plant, located in Tar Heel, N.C., is a Smithfield foods plant and is the largest in the world.
The company said on Monday that Mexico is blocking shipments due to concerns about the quality of hog skins. The one plant alone has a slaughter capacity of nearly 34,500 hogs a day, which accounts for nearly 7% of total U.S. slaughtering capacity, according to a Reuters report.
The news comes as robust exports have been a pinnacle piece of hog futures’ explosive price action this year. U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF)’s April data shows pork exports were up 2%, the sixth-largest on record.
With China’s pork purchases waning the past few months, Mexico has helped U.S. pork shipments continue at a historic pace. USMEF says April pork exports to Mexico were up 58% from a year ago, hitting a new high for 2021 at 67,365 metric tons. And the value of those shipments more than doubled, up 126%.
A Reuters report says Mexico’s decision to halt shipments from the North Carolina pork plant happened June 16. Smithfield officials say they are working with authorities to resume shipments as the exported hog skins ultimately came from a third-party company.
Smithfield is owned by WH Group, listed in Hong Kong.
