A recent National Restaurant Association survey of chefs shows protein demand is likely to grow and change toward more specialty items. Could the evolution of the craft and specialty beer market be a structural map for the future of the meat industry?To a large extent, food trends have come full circle. Consider that during the 1990s when low fat was the rage, evidence indicated per capita fat consumption had actually risen for much of that period as the sources of fat were merely switched. Consumers moved away from products like butter and cheese as they increased their consumption of salads, which were doused with oil-based dressing. As Marion Nestle, the reigning dean of the left-leaning food columnists put it, the American diet substitu...
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.
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...