The final required volume obligations (RVOs) for 2021 biofuel blending mandates is due in 17 days; that is a statutory requirement (although missed more than met since 2007 when it was implemented). However, not only has it not been issued, but the proposed rule has also yet to be published by EPA, even though it was completed in May. In the meantime, unthinkable back in April and May, corn prices are above $4.00/bushel, and gasoline prices are down 20 percent as of last week, and gasoline supplies in the U.S. are down 6 percent from last week. Moreover, with the COVID spike, lockdowns are being reimplemented across the country, starting with New York today and Chicago on Monday at 6 AM. These will extend into the Thanksgiving holiday, whi...
What You Need to Know Today: Corn and soybean futures were lower to open the week, with funds still in control and in a selling mood. The upcoming WASDE report on Tuesday is also likely to feature larger corn and soybean stocks, which helped put grain futures on the defensive. Wheat futures we...
Key Takeaways: Currency exchange rates influence agricultural export competitiveness and producer profitability, even when underlying commodity prices remain unchanged. A weaker domestic currency allows agricultural exporters to receive more local currency for dollar-denominated sales, potenti...
Although inflation has remained elevated since the post-COVID surge, it steadily moderated until the past year. More to the point, today’s inflation looks very different from 2022, when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) peaked at 9 percent. During and after the pandemic, the M2 money supply...
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.