Stocks of pork bellies are sharply higher.

WASHINGTON – Pork bellies in freezers were up 136 percent on Aug. 31 compared to a year ago, the US Department of Agriculture noted in its Cold Storage report for August.

Total red meat supplies in freezers declined slightly from July and were down 7 percent from a year ago. Total pounds of beef in freezers were 343,664,000 lbs., down 6 percent from the previous month and down 20 percent from the comparable year-ago period.

Frozen pork supplies — which totaled 546,305,000 lbs. — advanced 2 percent over July but declined slightly from last year. Stocks of pork bellies were down 29 percent from last month to 45,575,000 lbs.

Total frozen poultry supplies on Aug. 31 were up 1 percent to 1,111,387,000 lbs. compared to July but down 14 percent from a year ago, USDA reported. Total stocks of chicken, at 616,028,000 lbs., advanced slightly from the previous month but declined 13 percent from last year.

USDA reported 492,769,000 total lbs. of turkey in freezers, up 1 percent from last month but down 15 percent from Aug. 31, 2013.