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SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)
9 Months Ended
Jan. 29, 2012
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Reportable Segments
Smithfield Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries (the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our”), is the largest hog producer and pork processor in the world. We produce and market a wide variety of fresh meat and packaged meats products both domestically and internationally. We conduct our operations through four reportable segments: Pork, Hog Production, International and Corporate, each of which is comprised of a number of subsidiaries, joint ventures and other investments. A fifth reportable segment, the Other segment, contains the results of our former turkey production operations and our previous interest in Butterball, LLC (Butterball), which were sold in December 2010 (fiscal 2011).
Fiscal Period
The three months ended January 29, 2012 correspond to the third quarter of fiscal 2012 and the three months ended January 30, 2011 correspond to the third quarter of fiscal 2011. Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified to conform to current year presentation.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
In September 2011, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued new accounting guidance on testing goodwill for impairment. The new guidance provides an entity the option to first perform a qualitative assessment to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If an entity determines that this is the case, it is required to perform the currently prescribed two-step goodwill impairment test to identify potential goodwill impairment and measure the amount of goodwill impairment loss to be recognized for that reporting unit (if any). If an entity determines, based on its qualitative assessment, that the fair value of a reporting unit more likely than not exceeds its carrying amount, the two-step goodwill impairment test is not required. The new guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2011 with early adoption permitted. The adoption of this guidance is not expected to impact our consolidated condensed financial statements.