President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs are taking a bite out of the maker of canned pork-ham hybrid Spam.
Shares of Hormel Foods fell 3% to $37.33 in regular trading on Thursday after the pork producer cut its overall sales forecast from between $10.1 billion and $9.7 billion down to $9.6 billion to $9.4 billion for the remainder of 2018, according to the Financial Times. In after hours trading, however, Hormel’s shares recovered all their declines.
“Tariffs, freight, supply levels and demand have all created market volatility,” said Hormel Foods CFO Jim Sheehan in a conference call Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Hormel isn’t alone in feeling the sting of Trump’s tariffs. Last month, Tyson also blamed lower profits on the tariffs. Canada, China, and Mexico have implemented retaliatory trade tariffs against U.S. meat producers at an inconvenient time. The U.S. stockpile of frozen pork, beef, and poultry has climbed to over 2.5 billion pounds.
Hormel has a number of popular food products in its portfolio, including Applegate Natural and Organic Meats and Skippy Peanut Butter, which it acquired from Unilever in 2013. In May, Hormel recalled 220,000 pounds of Spam after consumers reported minor oral injuries due to metal objects found in the tinned meat.
Earlier this year, Hormel was named as one of several companies in a federal class action lawsuit that alleges price-fixing by the nine major pork producers that control 80% of the $20 billion global market.