Why is bacon so expensive?

Bacon is a favorite food item for many people, especially those that love the marbling of the pig’s belly meat.  Some people prefer to have bacon during breakfast time and mix it with other food items like eggs and waffles.  Other people also love to eat bacon at any meal during the day.  In recent times, though, many of these bacon lovers have noticed that bacon prices are very expensive. This has led some people to wonder why, all of a sudden, bacon is being sold at higher prices than usual.

As for the experts in the agricultural and hog sectors, there are literally fewer pigs living in recent times, and this has resulted in a shortage in overall pork meat and not just bacon or belly meat.  It is said that when the U.S. was in recession a couple of years back, farmers across the U.S. literally cut down the size of their herds.  At the time, it was expected that there would be less demand for pork meat.  With fewer pigs in the farm, it was then expected that there would also be less meat in the market.  With a low supply of belly or bacon meat, prices were also expected to be higher than usual.  This concern basically exemplifies the law of supply and demand.  Bacon has become too expensive because of the high demand at a time when the supply is low.

Some experts also point to the severe drought in various parts of the U.S. and in other parts of the world.  Hog farmers literally depend on primarily grains to feed their pigs.  With the shortage of these grains, it also affected the hog farmers because they had to spend more to feed their pigs.  By spending more to feed their pigs, farmers then have to sell their pigs or their meat at higher prices.  All of this extra spending will then trickle down to the price of bacon meat at the grocery store or at the public market.