With gasoline prices quite high in Brazil as a result of government actions, ethanol has become more attractive to motorists there in a country where the auto fleet is largely flex fuel cars.Brazil Ethanol Use: Gasoline prices in the U.S. are down this week about $1.02 from last year, but that is not the case in Brazil where they are very high. The government there has raised the price to prop up the state-owned oil company Petrobras and also added new taxes. This has made ethanol more attractive to motorists in a country where the auto fleet is largely flex fuel cars. March was the fourth-largest month since 2000 for sales of hydrous ethanol, which have increased 27 percent over the first quarter of 2015. Currently, ethanol prices are less...
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.