USA - Exchange rates & COOL slow swine imports in 2008

U.S. packers and swine finishers imported fewer Canadian swine last year largely because of unfavorable exchange rates early in the year, ongoing herd reductions in Canada, and uncertainty created by country-of-origin-labeling (COOL) toward the end of 2008. Total imports last year were 9.348 million head, almost 7 percent below a year earlier.