World Perspectives
energy

Oil and Food

The price of petroleum has plummeted, putting countries that are highly dependent on its export earnings into deep fiscal trouble. This should hinder their amount of foreign exchange and thus food imports beyond basic necessity. However, looking at the recent history of U.S. food exports to these countries and the average annual value of oil, there is no discernible pattern except perhaps a negative correlation. There could be several reasons for this disconnection. First, the U.S. is not a main supplier of food to many of these countries. In fact, Washington has trade embargoes against OPEC members like Iran and Venezuela, plus restrictions on trade with Russia. Even close ally Saudi Arabia shows minimal relationship (R2 = 0.11) between t...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

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livestock

Cattle on Feed Report

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 24 Corn closed at $4.255/bushel, down $0.0125 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.6475/bushel, down $0.0475 from yesterday's close. Jan 25 Soybeans closed at $9.835/bushel, up $0.0575 from yesterday's close. Dec 24 Soymeal closed at $289.2/short ton, up $1.5 fro...

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From WPI Consulting

Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming

WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.

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