Russian Grain Markets: 2 – 6 December 2024Export duties were the key driver followed by forex and increased freight costs for rail deliveries which are the main channel of grain delivery to the ports both from Russian territory and occupied territories of Ukraine. Before, freight was not a major factor but now it is! Some traders are switching to truck deliveries if distances are relatively small as fuel in Russia is inexpensive compared to the rest of the world. All of the above hinders Russian farmers from receiving the price they deserve and the price which the global market is prepared to pay. December wheat exports are estimated at around 3.5 MMT which is slightly lower than the average for the past several years.Russian wheat des...
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.
Key Market Insights Macro Markets: Inflation and Iran Reenter the Conversation Just when the grain trade had become comfortable focusing almost exclusively on weather, two major macro stories returned to the spotlight this morning: inflation and Iran. May CPI came in hotter than expected, with...
Why read this? Because Mark Twain correctly noted that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” One of the most successful commodity traders and an eventual analyst at WPI was Bob Kohlmeyer. He was a history major from Princeton. After 47 years of profession...
Key Takeaways: China's rise to become the world's largest soybean importer reshaped global trade flows, but recent trade tensions have reduced its share of U.S. soybean exports. U.S. soybean exports have become increasingly diversified as exporters expanded sales to multiple emerging markets t...