As the EU pursues a public comment period on the fairness of the food value chain, there are plenty of pitfalls ahead. Food Fairness As the EU pursues a public comment period on the fairness of the food value chain, there are plenty of pitfalls ahead. USDA has long published the farm value of the food retail price in the U.S., and while populist American farm groups mimic the lament over its spread just like their European counterparts, evidence of abuse has never surfaced. In fact, the chief economist for the largest U.S. farm group found irony when the food workers union (UFCW) joined the populist farm groups in protesting the small share collected by farmers; UFCW members have taken the largest and fastest-growing share of the American...
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.
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...