Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA: The Master of the M/V Tomini Destiny has refused to allow discharge of a bulk cargo in Bangladesh due to concerns over the added risk of COVID-19 from local stevedores. This is probably the first reported problem of this type, but it will certainly not be the last. There are problems in many ports with crew changes and replacement, as new crew members are not able to get to vessels due to lockdowns in many countries while current crew members cannot leave the vessels. Egypt’s GASC is looking at making changes to its wheat tenders – GASC may ask for tender offers as CNF rather than the normal FOB prices. It is said that GASC may also change to sight letters of credit (L...
What You Need to Know Today: Agricultural commodities were mostly lower on the day, with red-hot soyoil a notable exception. Export sales were a bit underwhelming, particularly for corn with export sales down 52 percent week-over-week. The weakness in ag markets tracked crude oil weakness wit...
With the war in Iran affecting fuel and fertilizer prices, higher tariffs, weak commodity prices, ag labor constraints, and other factors, farm bankruptcies are now at a 6-year high, a signal of growing stress. During the month of April, 62 Chapter 12 bankruptcies were filed, which is a 1...
Food Inflation The Open Markets Institute, which is notably funded by several “anonymous” donors and liberal foundations, obtained a guest editorial in the New York Times in which they blame agribusiness concentration for higher grocery prices. This is their schtick and it is politi...
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.