CME December 2021 lean hogs (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (pink, brown and dark red lines). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME hog futures rise on sustained buying

Interest tied to bullish USDA report; cattle futures continue lower

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures closed higher on Thursday on continued buying interest tied to the recent bullish quarterly hog report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), traders said. CME October lean hogs settled up 0.8 cent at 91.6 cents/lb., while the most-active December contract rose 1.8 cents […] Read more

CME December 2021 lean hogs (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (pink, red and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME hogs surge on bullish USDA data

Chicago cattle futures sag

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures soared on Monday, with the most-active December contract rising its daily limit after a quarterly U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed a smaller-than-expected U.S. hog herd. CME October lean hogs settled up 2.975 cents at 90.25 cents/lb., and the December contract rose its daily […] Read more


An information label is seen on packaging for a CO2 cylinder for a fizzy drinks machine in Manchester, Britain on Sept. 20, 2021. (Photo: Reuters)/Phil Noble)

Britain tells its food industry to prepare for CO2 price shock

U.K. pays fertilizer maker CF Industries to reopen plants

London | Reuters — Britain warned its food producers on Wednesday to prepare for a 400 per cent rise in carbon dioxide prices after extending emergency state support to avert a shortage of poultry and meat triggered by soaring costs of wholesale natural gas. Natural gas prices have spiked this year as economies reopened from […] Read more

(Olymel video screengrab via YouTube)

Olymel to close former F. Menard bacon plant

Pork further-processing plant at Henryville to shut in November

Meat packer Olymel plans to shut a pork further-processing plant it operates in Quebec’s Monteregie by mid-November and pick up the work at its other sites. Olymel, the meats arm of Sollio Co-operative, said Wednesday it will permanently close the bacon plant at Henryville, about 60 km southeast of Montreal, effective Nov. 12. The closure […] Read more


(Sollio Co-operative Group video screengrab via YouTube)

Upgraded Olymel hog plant’s second shift begins

Ange-Gardien plant's slaughter pace to rise by up to 40 per cent

A promised second shift is now up and running at a major hog plant in Quebec’s Monteregie and is expected to eventually boost the plant’s weekly slaughter capacity by up to 40 per cent. Plans for a second shift at Olymel’s packing plant at Ange-Gardien, about 50 km east of Montreal, have been in the […] Read more

(PorcOlymel.com)

Slaughter resumes at Olymel hog plant

Return to usual pace expected 'in coming weeks'

Hog slaughter resumed Friday at a major Quebec pork plant that had sat idle for over four months, as striking employees now return to work with a new six-year contract. The Olymel plant at Vallee-Jonction, south of Quebec City, restarted daytime and evening hog slaughter shifts Friday after “maintenance and sanitation” work on Wednesday and […] Read more


(Olymel video screengrab via YouTube)

Striking Olymel workers accept new six-year deal

Slaughter could restart Friday at earliest, company says

Striking workers at a major hog slaughter and cutting plant in Quebec’s Beauce region have agreed to a new six-year contract that could see slaughter resume Friday at the earliest. Olymel and the CSN-affiliated Syndicat des travailleurs d’Olymel Vallee-Jonction (STOVJ) announced Tuesday afternoon that unionized workers at the company’s Vallee-Jonction plant, south of Quebec City, […] Read more

(Sollio Co-operative Group video screengrab via YouTube)

Olymel, union reach second tentative deal to end strike

Company postpones threatened layoffs pending employees' vote Tuesday

A second agreement in principle has been reached between meat packer Olymel and the union for one of its major Quebec hog slaughter and processing plants to end a months-long strike — this time under threat of layoffs. Olymel and the CSN-affliliated Syndicat des travailleurs de Olymel Vallee-Jonction (STOVJ) announced Sunday afternoon they had reached […] Read more


(Olymel video screengrab via YouTube)

Union rejects province’s call for arbitration in Olymel strike

Labour minister had proposed third-party settlement

A proposal from Quebec’s labour minister to end a four-month strike at a major hog slaughter plant, which has created a backlog of market-weight hogs on farms in Eastern Canada, has been rejected by the workers’ union. Provincial Labour Minister Jean Boulet, at a meeting Thursday morning, put out a proposal to meat packer Olymel […] Read more

File photo of hogs in an outdoor pen on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. (EAGiven/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. seeks to protect pork exports if swine fever hits territories

Policy would distinguish Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands from mainland

Chicago | Reuters — The United States said on Thursday it is seeking to avoid disruptions to pork exports if the territories of Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands detect the fatal pig disease African swine fever. The risk for infections in the territories is higher after the Dominican Republic last month confirmed the […] Read more