Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Your first question comes from Terry Bivens - Bear Stearns.
Terry Bivens - Bear Stearns
Back during Steve McMillan's tenure, you guys went largely unhedged on currency. That would have to be the inference this morning, but is that correct? Are you basically letting the euro and other currencies kind of do what they do?
Theo de Kool
At the moment that is the situation, Terry. We are unhedged from a translation of earnings perspective. We do hedge, however, transaction results or other commodities or other purchases in foreign currency; we normally hedge those purchases from the moment that we enter into commitments.
Terry Bivens - Bear Stearns
What would the volume picture have been like? Obviously, you did have that unusual volume situation with the commodity meats. If you exclude that, what would the corporate volumes have looked like?
Brenda Barnes
You can see the effect on the meat business on the attachment to our press release.
Aaron Hoffman
We haven't really calculated that, Terry but, clearly, that would have a meaningful impact, one would expect, on the unit volume.
Terry Bivens - Bear Stearns
The volumes would probably have been down excluding that situation?
Theo de Kool
I don't think so. If you look at the table on page 15 of the press release, you can see that the corporate volume is 1% up, and that North American Retail Meats counts for 3.1%, but that it would have been flat without that commodity impact.
Terry Bivens - Bear Stearns
Flat without it.
Theo de Kool
For retail meats. So if you take out that 3% North American retail meat, you're still positive on the total, but less than 1%
Operator
Your next question comes from Pablo Zuanic – JP Morgan.
Pablo Zuanic - JP Morgan
Good morning, everyone. I'm just trying to put the 21% increase in MAP spending in context. The only guidance you've given for the year, if I'm not wrong, is that MAP spending is going to be up 50 to 70 basis points for the year. I'm just trying to get an idea of is 21% way above the average for the year, in line? Just give us a sense of that.
Theo de Kool
First of all, Pablo, we have not given any specific guidance on that. What we have done in inventory management is where we have combined R&D net and other, and then we gave an increase there. So you should not just project that on that only.
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