Macroeconomics Food Inflation Up in May, First Time Since January With live hog and retail pork prices nosediving, food inflation remained in negative territory from February through April. Despite rising prices for vegetable oil, eggs, fresh vegetable, and fresh fruit during that period, the drop in pork prices at the retail level more than offset the increases. That changed in May. In the aggregate, food prices last month were up by .3 percent from May 2020. Leading the uptick were fresh vegetables, eggs, fresh fruit, cooking oil, and dairy products, which jumped by 5.4 percent, 14.3 percent, 1.4 percent, 8.2 percent, and 2.3 percent, respectively. Pork prices fell by 23.8 percent from a year ago. Outside of food infl...
Key Takeaways: The CME Group is launching new 90 percent Lean Beef and 50 percent Lean Beef futures and options contracts in July. There are five key factors that must be present in physical markets and futures contract specifications for futures contracts to become successful. The two l...
Russian Grain Markets: 29 June-3 July 2026 The new marketing season has officially begun in Russia, although bearish sentiment has been concentrated in the southern regions closest to the Black Sea ports, where export demand has been weakest. Delays in grain deliveries to inland elevators have...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.