Bacon Surge May Last Past August as Supply Tightens

Bacon lovers in the U.S. are paying record prices during the seasonal summer peak for consumption, and costs may keep rising through August because smaller hog herds led to an unprecedented plunge in meat inventories.

Wholesale pork bellies, which are cured and sliced to make bacon, are up 72 percent in the past year to $1.4308 a pound, the highest price since at least 1998, government data show. Stockpiles in warehouses monitored by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange tumbled 73 percent in the year through July as U.S. hog producers cut their herds to stanch losses in 2008 and 2009.