War of Words The U.S. and China never miss a chance to criticize the other in international fora and that includes meetings in Geneva. At the WTO’s 15th trade policy review of the U.S., Chinese Ambassador Li Chenggang said, "Clearly, the United States is a destroyer to the multilateral trading system." That is rich coming from China, a country that used significant government policies and subsidies to become the world’s largest exporter. The U.S. supports the trading system by importing 17.6 percent of all traded goods and services, more than any other country and 17 percent more than China. The EU was more supportive, crediting Washington with playing a defining role in shaping the global trading system, which is...
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.