USDA Not Up to Speed on Hog, Pork Price Reporting

December 16, 1999

USDA's methods for obtaining and reporting hog and retail pork prices have not kept pace with the industry's changes. Funding priorities and a lack of access to data are to blame, says a new General Accounting Office report.

"At the farm level, USDA's reported prices are based on hogs sold through the open market and thus are not representative of all hogs sales," says GAO. "At the retail level, USDA reports pork prices that do not reflect actual consumer purchases." Rather, the report adds, reported retail prices reflect "an average of selected pork cuts offered for sale without regard to the actual amount purchased."

For December 1998, when reported cash prices for hogs declined to the lowest level in decades, USDA's reported retail price of $2.38 per pound was 14 cents per pound higher than consumer purchases indicated. "Consequently the differences in the prices received by farmers for their hogs and the prices paid by consumers for pork products, while considerable, was not as wide as USDA had reported," says GAO.

Legislation by Congress enacted in October requires USDA to obtain and report prices paid by packers for all hogs purchased, priced or slaughtered each business day. "USDA officials told us that these prices would include prices for all hogs sold through the open market and most hogs sold through other marketing arrangements," says GAO. The new law also requires USDA to report retail pork prices on the basis of actual consumer purchases.

When USDA officials reviewed the draft GAO report, their primary concern was that the report did not recognize the change USDA made last January to improve methods for reporting the spread between farm and retail pork prices. USDA also was concerned that the report suggested the department should replace its method for reporting prices from one that adjusts the prices to a consistent mix of pork products to one that is based on actual consumer purchases.

"We revised our report to acknowledge the changes that USDA has made to its reporting on spreads in pork prices and to clarify our conclusion that reporting retail prices based on actual consumer purchases will, if effectively implemented, represent a valuable addition to USDA's array of pork price reports," GAO wrote.

The full GAO report is available on the Internet at