At this week’s U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council meeting (USAEDC), speakers touted the record U.S. exports of 2022, which reached a record $212 billion, up by almost 11 percent from 2021 and up by nearly 1/3 since 2018. Note that these figures include forest and seafood products. A closer look, however, reveals that much of the growth was related to price increases. In volume terms, many export categories actually declined. In USDA’s “bulk” category for example, 2022 exports of corn and wheat were down for the year in volume terms and continued to decline for the first 5 months of 2023. Corn exports fell to 7.9 MMT, a decline of 16.3 percent in 2022 and are down by 1/3 YTD in 2023 for the January-Ma...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.