No “Great” Fixes The Trump Administration is seeking large changes at the WTO and in China but neither are likely to materialize. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will arrive in Washington this week for trade negotiations, but a Bloomberg story says that he has no concessions to offer on industrial policy or government subsidies. The refusal comes amidst a new report (Innovative China) published jointly by the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council arguing that GDP will slow if the reforms are not undertaken. Like the Bank’s predecessor 2012 report, China 2030, the latest iteration warns that GDP will inevitably slow if the ongoing misallocation of capital is not corrected. But President...
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.