Slaughter capacity is concentrated in the mid-west states. General trends in the US pork processing sector are towards large packers concentrating on low cost and high volume. In addition, the trend is towards increased business linkages between packers, further processors and producers, similar to changes over the last decade in US poultry production and processing. Trade US pork production is expected to grow by about 1.7 Mt over the next 7-10 years, while consumption is expected to grow about one Mt. Exports are expected to increase by about 0.7 Mt to around 1.1 Mt, making the US the world's largest pork exporter. The US also imports significant quantities of pork, mainly from Canada.
Pork is shipped from Quebec and Ontario into the highly populated north-eastern states.
Even with the expansion in US production, some Canadian pork exports to the US are expected due to location advantages. Canada Prices Canadian hog prices follow US prices closely. Hog price spreads between the US and Canada, and between Ontario and Alberta are highly variable, but seem to be narrowing over time. Production Canadian pork production was 1.2 Mt in 1996, equal to the five-year average. Ontario and Quebec are the largest producers at 25 and 31 per cent of total hog marketings in 1996, respectively.