World Perspectives
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Worsening Food Prices

Key agricultural commodity prices have risen sharply over the past two years, some reaching their highest level in a decade (see graph below). Now the UN says that climate change could cause production to fall 30 percent at the same time food demand is forecast to rise by 50 percent. The caution with this prognostication is that it was made by two of the worst professions at forecasting: economists and meteorologists! Nonetheless, any price increases will be further compounded by the policy decisions that are being made. 

Restrictions on inputs such as land, fertilizer, water, and biotechnology. Disincentives for fossil energy development. Initiatives such as local/food sovereignty. Prohibiting products from certain geographies (...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.5375/bushel, down $0.0675 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $6.0325/bushel, down $0.135 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.9625/bushel, down $0.045 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $313.5/short ton, down...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Crude Oil Rally and Crash Drives Whipsaw CBOT Action

The massive rally in energy markets remains the primary story underpinning ag markets. Front-month crude oil futures ripped higher overnight and traded above $100/brl for the first time since July 2022 before scoring an overnight high just shy of $120/brl. That strength pulled ag markets &ndash...

Process Standards as NTBs; Nazi Food

Process Standards as NTBs California’s Prop 12, which a House Agriculture Committee-passed farm bill is supposed to override, restricts the sale of pork and eggs in the state if not produced according to its restrictive standards. Such processing restrictions have long been used as nontar...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.5375/bushel, down $0.0675 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $6.0325/bushel, down $0.135 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.9625/bushel, down $0.045 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $313.5/short ton, down...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Crude Oil Rally and Crash Drives Whipsaw CBOT Action

The massive rally in energy markets remains the primary story underpinning ag markets. Front-month crude oil futures ripped higher overnight and traded above $100/brl for the first time since July 2022 before scoring an overnight high just shy of $120/brl. That strength pulled ag markets &ndash...

Process Standards as NTBs; Nazi Food

Process Standards as NTBs California’s Prop 12, which a House Agriculture Committee-passed farm bill is supposed to override, restricts the sale of pork and eggs in the state if not produced according to its restrictive standards. Such processing restrictions have long been used as nontar...

energy

Iran War Hits Fertilizer Supply and Disrupts SMP Trade

Today the war in Iran has hit its 10th day. Iranian forces have sustained their retaliatory strikes on US military assets and other key infrastructure in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The latest Iranian attacks on Bahrain have damaged a water desalination plant. Further, more than a...

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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.

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