Chinese society's public debate on GM food has greatly intensified and evolved from a health issue to one of national security. China's Beef Price Soars before the Chinese New Year As the Chinese New Year approaches at the end of this month, China's beef price is soaring. According to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the wholesale beef price stood at $10.5/kg during the week of 20 January, significantly higher than the level of $5.46/kg in 2008. Meat processors complain that they have been struggling to source cattle as demand is booming. Capacity utilization is running as low as 30 percent for some major domestic processors due to the cattle shortage.In recent years, the two biggest issues preventing farmers from expanding their herd s...
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.