Regional Updates MIDDLE EAST/MEDITERRANEAN COMMENTS Iran’s Chabahar port has been granted an exemption from the U.S. sanctions placed on that country. The exemption is said to cover port use for Afghanistan-related goods and also extends to the Iran/Afghanistan railway corridor. India has committed to supplying Afghanistan with 1.1 MMT of wheat under a grant program, which is expected to pass through the Iranian port. Egypt reports that its strategic reserves have enough stocks of wheat, sugar and vegetable oil for 4.3 months, 5.3 months and 3.3 months, respectively. This does not include any supplies held by the private sector. Egyptian authorities also say that wheat imports to date in 2018 total 10.1 MMT with 7.1 MMT procured fr...
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.