Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows just how much retail prices for sliced bacon have climbed over 20 years.
Retail prices for bacon fluctuated in the $3.03 to $3.57 per-lb. range between 2000 and 2009. But by 2010, prices advanced to $4.16 for one pound of bacon. A price spike occurred in 2013 when porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) made its first-ever appearance in the United States. The virus would eventually spread to 30 states, Mexico and Canada.
Prices for sliced bacon continued to rise in 2014 as the virus began taking a toll on the US swine herd. But by 2015, prices began to stabilize, and inventories of breeding hogs began to increase.
Despite paying more for a pound of bacon, consumer demand remained strong and pork processing companies spent much of 2015 and millions of dollars bolstering belly production.
