California Citrus Rising Costs and COVID Impact on Pork Processing

**California citrus growers are facing increasing costs for bringing their crops to market.

The California Citrus Mutual trade association says farmers are facing price increases in water, labor, fertilizer, pesticides and transportation.

Amid drought and pandemic-related supply-chain challenges, 4% of last season’s citrus crop was neither picked nor sold.

This year, a down-year growing cycle, the navel crop is expected to drop by 20% and mandarins by as much as 45%.

**Pork prices increased because of demand, higher input costs and labor shortages throughout the supply chain, not concentration in the meatpacking industry, according to a new report from Iowa State University, North Carolina State University and the National Pork Producers Council.

The report also says pork prices in the U.S. are still lower than in many other countries.

NPPC President Jen Sorenson says, this report shows the concentration level in the pork packing industry is not significantly higher than it was 15 years ago.

**USDA’s Economic Research Service says the impact of COVID-19 on processing rates was short-lived in the largest pork-producing region.

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska process more than 40% of all U.S. hogs.

In the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, March-May 2020, the region experienced a 40% decline in hog slaughter compared with rates during the same period in 2019.