Soybeans Brazil The Brazilian market was slow last week. As it has been all year, the real was one of the big factors. The currency has been showing a huge volatility, which determines whether farmers want to sell their soybeans or retain them. It started last week at 3.6 reals/USD and quickly depreciated to 3.95 reals/USD on Thursday. The real then appreciated again to reach 3.7 by Friday, a move of almost 7 percent within a day. Another factor that had an impact was the trucker strike, which is now basically lifted. While the roads are not currently blocked, the market is at a standstill. Negotiating with the government, truck drivers were able to achieve a minimum per-kilometer-of-transport tariff, an increased cost that was not accep...
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.