Pork Ham Cuts

The ham primal comes off the back leg of the pork carcass and is comparable in size to the loin, typically 22 to 25 percent of carcass weight. Major sub-primals include the inside ham (IMPS 402F), the outside ham (IMPS 402E), various weight-banded boneless ham combos (17-20 lb, 23-27 lb), and ham trim items (insides combo and outsides red combo). Ham flows heavily into bone-in cured ham programs, deli ham further-processing, and export. The export channel is structurally important for pork ham in a way that does not apply to most beef primals: bone-in cured product moves to markets that consume ham in traditional formats (parts of Asia for the inside ham, parts of Europe for muscle ham used in prosciutto and speck production). When export demand firms, bone-in ham pricing firms regardless of domestic deli activity. Ham pricing has a strong seasonal pattern around Easter and Christmas, when retail features pull bone-in cured hams. Ham sub-primals print daily in the USDA AMS National Daily Pork Carcass Cutout report (LM_PK602), with weight-banded boneless lines and the various trim items reporting separately.