§198a Swine Packer Marketing Contracts Offered to Producers

Summary

If money is provided, the Secretary must create and keep a list or library of every kind of contract that packers offer to swine producers to buy some or all of their hogs, including any extra payments not based on carcass quality. The Secretary must share that information with producers and others, and must give notice of contracts each packer is offering and open for acceptance, in real time if possible. The information is protected under section 1636. The Secretary must require each packer to file what contracts it offers and publish a monthly report. Packers must give details on contract types; any clauses that let the number of hogs expand in the next 6‑month and 12‑month periods; estimates of how many hogs are already committed for those periods by region and contract type; and estimates of the maximum number that could be delivered under those expansion clauses, also by region and contract type. It is illegal for a packer to willfully refuse to provide accurate required information. Money is authorized as needed to carry out these rules.