By Lisa M. Keefe

“Smithfield’s packaged meats business is performing at record levels and profitability is already benefiting from the restructuring plan. In addition, hog production results will improve as herd reductions accelerate and supply is reduced. We continue to position the overall business for much stronger earnings and I am very optimistic about the potential earnings power of this company,” Pope said in the release.

Pope pointed out that executive bonuses were not distributed last year, and so the stock sale is “purely to fulfill personal commitments.” He said he does not plan to sell any additional shares at this time. (See Smithfield’s Pope sees pay cut in half for ’09, on Meatingplace, July 10, 2009.)

By the time the market closed Thursday, Smithfield’s shares were down $1.18, or 8.55 percent, to $12.62 on the New York Stock Exchange. This, on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped just more than 2 percent, by 203 points to 9509.28.

Prior to the sale, Mr. Pope owned 322,000 shares of Smithfield Foods common stock directly, as well as stock options to purchase 670,000 additional shares.