Macroeconomics Food Costs See Another Big Jump in August Food prices across China rose by 6.1 percent last month, marking the second straight increase of more than 6 percent from prices a year ago. The uptick in July and August are the two strongest surges in the past 22 months. Ongoing pandemic lockdowns, high energy prices, and surging agricultural commodity costs have all contributed to the about-face in the cost food over the summer. August’s figures also marked the fifth consecutive month that the average price for food was up from a year ago. Leading the way was the cost of pork, which saw strong gains last month and rose by 22.4 percent compared to August 2021. It was followed by the prices for fresh fruit, cooking oil, fres...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.