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 (...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.595/bushel, down $0.06 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.8775/bushel, down $0.075 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.635/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $326.6/short ton, down $1.4...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Oil and Iran Conflict Still in Drivers’ Seat, but This Time Creating Pressure

Volatility has been no stranger to the CBOT these past three weeks, and the one consistency during this time has been the dramatic coupling of ag markets’ fortunes to the foibles of crude oil. That was again true on Monday, but this time crude oil offered a bearish – rather than sup...

WTO Realism; Reindustrialization; Canadian Ego

WTO Realism The WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference begins later this week, and while some have high hopes, pragmatists understand the elongated nature of consensus-based multinational policy development. EU trade minister Maroš Šefčovič expresses the hopes of his constituents...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.595/bushel, down $0.06 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.8775/bushel, down $0.075 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.635/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $326.6/short ton, down $1.4...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Oil and Iran Conflict Still in Drivers’ Seat, but This Time Creating Pressure

Volatility has been no stranger to the CBOT these past three weeks, and the one consistency during this time has been the dramatic coupling of ag markets’ fortunes to the foibles of crude oil. That was again true on Monday, but this time crude oil offered a bearish – rather than sup...

WTO Realism; Reindustrialization; Canadian Ego

WTO Realism The WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference begins later this week, and while some have high hopes, pragmatists understand the elongated nature of consensus-based multinational policy development. EU trade minister Maroš Šefčovič expresses the hopes of his constituents...

War in Iran Taking Toll on Meat Exports Globally and U.S. Agriculture

The war in Iran is taking a toll on meat exports as well as fuel and fertilizer. As noted in a letter to the Administration, “Maritime freight disruptions from the ongoing conflict in Iran pose significant consequences to food security here at home and around the world.” This comes...

Image
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.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up