22 Jul 2011

Pork belly market closes

5:09 am on 22 July 2011

Chicago's pork belly market has closed after 50 years of trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The closing had been expected. Trading in pork belly futures dropped to zero in recent years after the meat industry became integrated and used fresh pork bellies instead of frozen ones to make bacon.

The contract started trading in 1961 and was the oldest livestock futures contract on the exchange.