The tightening global stocks situation is not just impacting food crops but fiber as well. Global production of cotton is down 7.4 percent at the same time consumption has increased 14.6 percent. The result is that ending stocks have fallen 5 percent and the average price is 14 percent higher. Half of the 10 million bale reduction in world production is by the United States. The main beneficiaries are India (exports up 78 percent) and Brazil (exports increased by 17 percent). As in so many things, China is the juggernaut in the global cotton market. It is both the world’s largest producer and the largest importer of cotton. In fact, China consumes 36 percent of the global cotton supply. Meanwhile, China exports 44.6 percent of...
Wool is one of the most misunderstood U.S. agricultural commodities. Fine wool in the 17–21 micron range commands premium prices in luxury apparel, technical outdoor gear, and high-end knitwear, while coarser wool is gaining support as building codes and standards shift toward natural-fib...
There are plenty of major headlines moving across the markets today, but the reaction beneath them remains cautious. Crude oil is holding steady despite reports of progress involving the Strait of Hormuz, corn and soybeans remain tied to changing weather forecasts, and wheat continues to weigh...
Key Takeaways: Sugarcane is the world’s largest crop by total production volume, surpassing major commodities such as corn, wheat, and soybeans, and supplies roughly 80 percent of global sugar production. Sugarcane’s perennial growth cycle allows farmers to harvest multiple crops f...
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.