Dear readers,
I had the honor to meet a few times Joseph “Joe” W. Luter III. He was known for being tough, uncompromising and visionary, driving Smithfield to success by expecting excellence while rewarding loyalty and results. Smithfield became the global model for how pork is raised, processed, and marketed globally while the expansion into Europe and across North America set new benchmarks for scale, efficiency, and brand recognition. Former President and CEO of Smithfield Foods, he passed away on August 28, 2025, at the age of 86.
Industry news:
- Smithfield Foods Inc. announced the launch of a secondary public offering of 16 million shares of common stock. The company’s main shareholder, SFDS UK Holdings Limited, , is selling the shares nine months after the pork giant’s initial public offering. Smithfield Foods became a publicly traded company again in January, floating a portion of its shares on the Nasdaq exchange while China’s WH Group retained majority ownership of the company.
- Kemin Industries, a global ingredient manufacturer, announced the acquisition of Hennessy Research Associates, LLC, specialized in the research and development of vaccines for infectious diseases of animals.
- A study, funded by the National Pork Board/USDA as part of a subaward from the U.S. Department of Defense and developed at Texas A&M University’s Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management, found that the type of protein you eat after intense physical training can significantly impact recovery. Despite consuming the same amount of protein, the cadets who ate pork-based ratios showed less muscle soreness, reduced nitrogen excretion and lower levels of inflammation than those who were fed the plant-based protein. Hormonal responses also improved, with better testosterone-to-cortisol ratios observed in the pork group.
- The Mexican Institute of Pork Farming and the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism signed a collaboration agreement for a strategic alliance focused on strengthening the pork sector’s production chain and boosting local pork consumption , with a direct impact on Mexican businesses and family companies.
Events calendar:
- The “VIV Select China” in Nanjing is a leading international trade fair for animal breeding and processing, held annually in September at the Nanjing International Expo Center. The VIV Select China takes place on 3 days, from Wednesday, 10.09.2025 to Friday, 12.09.2025.
Virus
Lets stay with China, for the moment. The government announced an investigation to the European pork prices, as a retaliation measure for the taxes imposed by the EU for the electric cars imported from China. In a preliminary ruling, the investigating authority has decided to apply provisional anti-dumping measures involving “security deposits ,” or temporary tariffs: starting September 10, 2025, importers of the investigated products must deposit a security deposit with the Customs of the People’s Republic of China based on the security deposit ratios for each company determined in this preliminary ruling . The security deposit will be applied based on the dutiable price of the imported goods determined by customs. The rates imposed on EU companies vary by company, being mostly 20%, although some companies must pay a “security deposit” of up to 31.5%, while companies that did not cooperate in the Chinese investigation face tariffs of 62,4 %. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce offers a period to submit observations within 10 days of this announcement.
While the consumer habit of the Chinese market makes it a destination for the “fifth quarter”(byproducts in Europe), the challenge will be on the profitability of the slaughterhouses. In the last twenty years, since this products went mainly to China, there were almost no investments in rendering, which was handling byproducts before this items become a valuable merchandise.
Rendering capacity is also challenged in Europe by the African Swine Fever(ASF).
Two weeks ago we had a large outbreak in Estonia. Last week an outbreak has been detected in the Ogre region of Latvia on a farm with 20,000 domestic pigs, owned by Baltic Pork SIA. All pigs on the holding are being culled and a quarantine zone has been established.
Despite all the efforts, an effective vaccine is not yet available, at least judged by the lack of success of the two vaccines developed and approved in Vietnam. We need to find a way to stop the virus!
