Industry group: bacon, pork shortage ‘unavoidable’

(istock)

Maybe the Mayans saw this coming in their end of the world prophesies. Those who pray at the temple of bacon could see their world crumbling to bacon bits this winter.

A world shortage of pork and bacon next year is “now unavoidable,” a British industry group said in a press release.

Britain's National Pig Association (NPA) says that pig herds in Europe are shrinking. As if that isn’t bad enough, this trend is “being mirrored around the world,” the group says in the release. Drought conditions, especially in the U.S. and Russia, have taken a toll on the price of the grain crops used for animal feed, and world food prices are expected to reach record highs in 2013.

The number of slaughtered pigs could drop by as much as 10 percent in the second half of next year, the NPA says. This would double the price of European pork and pork products.

The NPA is advising supermarkets to pay Britain’s pig farmers a fair price to counter the high price of feed or “risk empty spaces on their shelves next year," said NPA chairman Richard Longthorp.

In the United States, CBS Chicago reports that the price of pork belly has increased to $1.40 a pound in August, up from June’s price of 94 cents a pound.   

Read more about the looming bacon shortage in the LA Times.