Milk producers express more angst over the economic situation than other commodity producers, yet their production is largely inline with consumption. For the three largest global milk makers, India has actually increased consumption to match production. The other two large producers are the EU and U.S., with domestic consumption absorbing 99.4 percent and 99.8 percent of output, respectively. While India’s consumers have increased their share of domestic supply destruction over the past decade, the rate has fallen slightly in the EU and U.S., by 0.4 percent and 0.14 percent, respectively. A key difference is in fluid milk consumption. Most dairy producing countries have increased fluid milk disappearance, with India drinking 5...
For years, the EU treated its cows, pigs, and broilers mainly as a source of emissions to be reduced. This week the European Commission gave them a new job title: "critical infrastructure." According to the EU’s official livestock strategy presented in Strasbourg, France, livestock underp...
Wool is one of the most misunderstood U.S. agricultural commodities. Fine wool in the 17–21 micron range commands premium prices in luxury apparel, technical outdoor gear, and high-end knitwear, while coarser wool is gaining support as building codes and standards shift toward natural-fib...
There are plenty of major headlines moving across the markets today, but the reaction beneath them remains cautious. Crude oil is holding steady despite reports of progress involving the Strait of Hormuz, corn and soybeans remain tied to changing weather forecasts, and wheat continues to weigh...
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.