Inventories

6 Months Ended

Jul. 02, 2011

Inventories

Inventories

Note 3 — Inventories

The following is a summary of inventories at July 2, 2011 and December 31, 2010:

	July 2,			December 31,
(Thousands of dollars)	2011			2010
At lower of LIFO cost or market:
Live hogs and materials	$	224,532		$	200,600
Fresh pork and materials	26,247			24,779
	250,779			225,379
LIFO adjustment	(43,048		)	(24,085		)
Total inventories at lower of LIFO cost or market	207,731			201,294
At lower of FIFO cost or market:
Grains and oilseeds	284,372			203,232
Sugar produced and in process	42,317			50,190
Other	45,367			44,013
Total inventories at lower of FIFO cost or market	372,056			297,435
Grain, flour and feed at lower of weighted average cost or market	42,226			35,032
Total inventories	$	622,013		$	533,761

As of July 2, 2011, Seaboard had $2,910,000 recorded in grain inventories related to its commodity trading business that are committed to various customers in foreign countries for which customer contract performance is a heightened concern.  If Seaboard is unable to collect amounts from these customers as currently estimated or Seaboard is forced to find other customers for a portion of this inventory, it is possible that Seaboard could incur additional write-downs in the value of this inventory if Seaboard is not successful in selling at the current carrying value.  For the three and six months of 2011, Seaboard incurred write-downs of $1,644,000 and $3,342,000, respectively, related to these types of inventories.