Logistics Truck movements have normalized since the first few weeks of the quarantine when uncertainty and divergent local regulations slowed the arrival of trucks to ports. With harvest now moving at high speed for soybeans and corn, the flow of truck arrivals at ports is high. The Argentine government has extended the quarantine until at least 26 April, but agriculture and food businesses are still on the list of exempted entities. The Parana River is at its lowest levels in the last 30 years (see photos below), which is creating problems for vessel owners who are ready to load grains. Pilots need to be more prudent and cautious, so movement in the river is much slower as pilots try to avoid groundings. With the ...
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...