US hog futures drop amid China pork testing move

Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures closed down sharply on Tuesday as lower cash hog prices and requests by China for extra testing of U.S. pork for a feed additive weighed, said analysts and traders.

China wants a third party to verify starting March 1 that U.S. pork shipped to the country is free of the feed additive ractopamine used to promote lean muscle growth and banned in the European Union, Russia, Taiwan and mainland China.