The Trump administration is facing mounting pressure to buy more meat, dairy and produce for food banks as farmers destroy agricultural goods due to reduced restaurant demand during the coronavirus outbreak.
The National Pork Producers Council, which represents U.S. hog farmers, on Tuesday called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase more than $1 billion in pork. The agency should buy products like hams and bacon that are packaged for restaurants and use it to supplement food bank programs facing increased demand due to rising unemployment, according to the industry group.
About 16.8 million people filed for U.S. unemployment benefits in the last three weeks as the country shut down to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Supplies of meat, cheese and vegetables have backed up and dairy farmers have been dumping milk as restaurant dining rooms have closed. Rabobank estimates overall North American meat demand is down some 30% in the past month.
Increased food purchases by USDA can "help ensure that the production that no longer has a foodservice market can be made available to help our nation's food banks," said Representative Collin Peterson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
Peterson, in a letter on Tuesday, urged USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue to use $9.5 billion in funding through the CARES Act relief bill, as well as the Commodity Credit Corporation funding authority, to ease food demand disruptions from the outbreak.
Perdue said on Twitter last week USDA is developing a program that will include direct payments to farmers and "procurement methods to help solidify the supply chain from producers to consumers." The agency said on Tuesday that details will be released soon.
Hog farmers will euthanize dramatically more pigs without immediate federal aid, according to A.V. Roth, president of the pork council. It estimates producers will lose about $5 billion this year or $37 per hog.
Feeding America, which says it is the largest U.S. hunger-relief organization, and the American Farm Bureau Federation said in a letter last week that USDA should implement a voucher program that would allow farmers and food banks to work directly with one another.
"We are seeing literally tons of agricultural goods being discarded because of the shutdown of so much of the economy," the letter said. "Paradoxically, we are seeing a simultaneous surge in demand at a moment when many farmers are being told there is an oversupply of their product."
Meanwhile, China's pork imports almost tripled in March from last year, customs data showed on Tuesday, soaring to a record monthly volume as buyers sought to plug a huge supply gap after African swine fever decimated the country's pig herd.
China, the world's biggest consumer of pork, brought in 391,000 tonnes last month, up from 127,218 tonnes in March 2019, according to Reuters calculations based on data from General Administration of Customs.
Shipments of pork in the first quarter came to 951,000 tonnes, nearly double the same period last year, the customs data showed.
The deadly African swine fever disease reduced China's pig herd by at least 40% last year, slashing pork output and sending prices of the country's favorite meat to record highs.
An extended Lunar New Year holiday in February, implemented to help China tackle the coronavirus epidemic, also led to a backlog clearing refrigerated containers at China's ports that month, boosting the shipments handled in March.
China said last month imports in the first two months of 2020 came to 560,000 tonnes, up 158% from a year earlier.
Imports of beef in the first quarter reached 531,000 tonnes, up 65%, customs said on Tuesday. That puts March arrivals at 233,875 tonnes, based on imports of 297,125 tonnes in the first two months of the year.
Beef imports are expected to fall in coming months, however, after a plunge in demand from the important foodservice sector as people stay away from restaurants to avoid the coronavirus.
The data showed that in the first quarter China bought $5.05 billion of farm goods from United States, up 110% from last year.
This included 168,000 tonnes of U.S. pork, a more than seven-fold increase.
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