America is sitting on an excess stock of bacon to the tune of over 40 million pounds.

Data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture last Tuesday showed that the amount of pork belly – the cut of meat used to make bacon – stored in public, private and semi-private refrigerated warehouses reached a near-record high of 40 million pounds at the end of September, the highest in 48 years.

It's slightly down from the month of August, which showed 45 million pounds in reserves – but, as a whole, the increased pork stored in warehouses in the past few months hasn't reached this level since 1971, when 50 million pounds of bacon were stored.

The pig herd, per Bloomberg, is at 77.7 million heads.

Bloomberg reports that the production of pork accelerated during the summer due to increased imports from China, whose pork supply has suffered from an outbreak of African swine fever.

The demand for pork belly is historically domestic, while other cuts of pork are more popular internationally. But as the trend for exporting pork to China continues at this rate, the bacon excess may stabilize, per Bloomberg.

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