010377 Smithfield Shares Up on Foot-And-Mouth ScareMarch 24, 2001New York - Smithfield Foods Inc., the No. 1 U.S. pork producer, may be enjoying a surge in its share price as a result of the current outbreak of foot- and-mouth disease in Europe, according to financial magazine BusinessWeek. In the “Inside Wall Street” section of its April 2 issue, BusinessWeek columnist Gene Marcial said the disease has sent hog prices soaring, spelling good news for the Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, which is also the world's largest hog producer and pork packer. Smithfield's stock, which was trading at $23 in October, closed at $32.25 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, near its 52-week high of $33.30 a share. Representatives from Smithfield, which raises 3 million hogs per quarter, could not be reached for comment on the article. In his column, Marcial quotes industry analysts as saying that foot-and- mouth disease, which infects cloven-hoofed animals and has been costing European farmers millions of dollars in losses, could lead to huge increases in demand for U.S. pork in countries normally supplied by Europe.
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