Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Vending Impact on Food Safety: Food industry research firm Technomics says that the retailer meal solutions (RMS; prepared meals for takeout) category in g...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS With financial problems in Egypt plaguing the government, GASC must look at a wide range of alternative methods to pay for need...

We should say that in our opinion, soybeans and soy markets have provided more excitement and tension over the past 50 years than any other major field cro...

After nominating new State, Treasury and Defense secretaries for his second term, President Obama today named three new picks for cabinet officials: Gina M...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) calculates the initial (and minimum) price levels for the crop revenue insurance program in the fall for winter-planted...

Market Sees Less Wheat Substituting for Corn Most Chinese feed plants recently have been decreasing wheat rations in feed because of wheat prices being inc...

General Comments Markets were quiet in overnight trading with a steady to slightly lower bias. There wasn't much market-making news over the weekend. They...

SPS Litmus in TPP: U.S. aggies are pressing USTR to put an enforceability provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for the WTO-plus sanitary and ph...

India's Budget and Its Impact India's budget for the next fiscal year was unveiled last week. Many hoped there would be an announcement to fast-track the e...

General Comments Markets again demonstrated their inability to rally two consecutive days by trading lower overnight and into the open outcry opening this...

There is a lot of significance to the month of March that shouldn't go unnoticed. It is the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It contains St. Patr...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Opposite Ways on Biotech: One of the U.S. goals in the upcoming EU-U.S. trade and investment agreement negotiations reportedly is to get Brussels to work m...

It's 1 March, Sequester Day, with no deal within reach. Yesterday two votes were taken on plans to avert the sequester. The Democratic plan failed 51-49 (s...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Trade and Wages: The U.S. economy must be in better shape because Americans are no longer sour toward trade. The latest Gallup survey shows 57 percent of A...

During the intense volatility that prevailed in commodity futures markets in 2007, 2008 and again in 2011, it was commonly asserted that the volatility was...

General Comments CME delivery intentions against March futures consisted of 119 contracts of wheat, 185 contracts of oats and 2,932 contracts of soybean oi...

Sequester and Meat Plants Last Friday (see WPI 22 February) we wrote about the potential sequester and the political specter of furloughing meat inspectors...

Surprisingly Large U.S. Soy Export Sales Today's USDA export sales report showed surprisingly large U.S. export sales of soybeans and soymeal last week. Th...

General Comments This morning USDA reported an export sale of 120,000 MT of old crop soybeans to unknown destinations (probably China) and a sale of 120,00...

Russian Grain Markets: 20-26 February 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 65,004 MT of grain for exchange trading on 20 February a...

Big Sales of Soybean Oil Several crushers last week liquidated their long positions on soyoil, which might seem strange considering farmers' grain retentio...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

EU-U.S. Negotiating Angst: The newly proposed EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement has launched dozens of discussions this week...

Jones Act Under Threat: U.S. aggies tried for decades to rid the burden of the U.S. flagged shipping requirement (AKA the Jones Act) for government impelle...

Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) are the 38-digit tracking mechanism for ethanol compliance. A RIN is generated when ethanol is produced, but it can...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The biggest news out of Egypt this week was Nomani Nomani's resignation from GASC after several years of overseeing wheat purch...

Rosario Exchanges Cuts Forecast for Argentine Soybean Production The Rosario Grains Exchange today reduced its forecast for Argentine soybean production th...

"Hope springs eternal," as the old saying goes, and in terms of U.S. corn and soybean crops for 2013/14, last week's projections from the USDA Outlook Conf...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Overnight trade was mixed with corn retaining some of yesterday's strength while soybeans and wheat bounced around on both sides of unchan...

Food inflation for 2012 was up 1.8 percent last year, compared with 4.7 percent in 2011. Gasoline prices rose 1.7 percent in 2012, following gains of almos...

China to Prioritize Grain Security The Chinese government recently stated that prioritizing grain security and guaranteeing the supply of major farm produc...

EU Ag Going Naked: The European Union has delayed for a couple of weeks a decision on cancelling the use of certain pesticides on agricultural crops. While...

The season of winter farm meetings is quickly drawing to a close even though much of the farm belt has a cover of snow (at last). I was at three meetin...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments The markets were steady to slightly higher much of the first half of the night trading, but gradually started to weaken toward daylight wi...

Indian Wheat Exports Continue at Lower Prices Good weather and timely showers in India's northern belt during the past week have given hope for a bumper cr...

Milling Wheat Offers for Russian and Ukrainian wheat have disappeared. The new crop Russian wheat is offered at $285 for 12.5 percent protein and at $275 f...

General Comments It was the final day of USDA's Outlook Conference, and their corn and soybean projections were bearish with forecasts for a record U.S. co...

Everyone knew that USDA would release big corn and soybean yield and crop production estimates at their annual outlook conference this week — and that's ex...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Soybean Export Sales Decline, Good Soymeal and Soyoil Export Sales Today's USDA export sales report indicated U.S. net soybean export sales declined by 119...

As we reported on 15 March, time is marching toward the sequester on 1 March, unless Congress delays it (again.) The sequester would cut $85 billion from t...

In a letter to the editors of the Wall Street Journal appearing in today's edition, Professor Ronald L. McKinnon of Stanford University writes about the "c...

Addicted to Failure: The New York Times is highlighting a new book by one of its reporters that accuses the food industry of masterminding consumer "addict...

General Comments Yesterday's green numbers turned red today. Grains and the soy complex turned lower in overnight trading, and that was the trend as well t...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

EPA Releases Personal Info on Livestock Operators: The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) was informed this week by the U.S. Environmental Protec...

Supreme Court Appears to Support Monsanto on Biotech Royalties The justices on the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to be very supportive yesterday of the right...

Russian Grain Markets: 13-19 February 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,996 MT of grains for exchange commodity trading on 13...

General Comments In the short term grain and soy markets are contending with two main sources of influence: weather and demand. The weather factor consists...

Corn: No Clear Trend on Argentine Corn Premiums Argentine new crop corn is currently experiencing both bullish and bearish influences. This is the main rea...

Aggies Losing in DC: Farm groups rejected a proposal by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The Egyptian government says that the local currency — the Egyptian pound — will not collapse under the weight of t...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Soybeans are an important crop, so much so that the way they are grown has become a topic to be argued tomorrow in front of the U.S. Supre...

It is a bit redundant to say that the corn futures market "wants" to be bearish since it has fallen about 50 cents so far (10:30 AM as of 19 February) duri...

While the annual USDA Outlook Conference is ready to tee off tomorrow to discuss the current state and future outlook of the agriculture economy, The Washi...

Ironies of Sequester Politics: Nearly all agree that the across the board U.S. budget cuts (sequester) slated for 1 March is worse policy than making cuts...

A week ago we took a peek at what the U.S. wheat production and balance sheet might look like in the 2013/14 marketing year. Today we take a look at what w...

General Comments The screens were "green" overnight and that buying carried over into today's activity. Volume, however, was very light. Wheat led the mark...

Senate Democrats, with backing from the White House, yesterday proposed a plan to avert the sequester by cutting $120 billion. One quarter of the savings c...

Sequestration War: Senate Democrats have produced a package of tax increases and spending cuts that would offset the spending needed to avoid sequestration...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

EURAFTA Skepticism II: Anyone looking for reasons to be skeptical about the success of a U.S.-European negotiating effort on free trade need only see remar...

Where's the Beef? USDA's semi-annual beef cattle survey for January 2013 shows that the beef herd in January 2014 will be about 1.5 percent smaller than it...

General Comments Trade in grains and the soy complex was indecisive overnight and volume was light. Asian traders should begin returning to action starting...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Soy Export Sales Below Expectations The expected sharp decline in U.S. soybean and soymeal export sales seems to have come. Today's USDA export sales repor...

Over the past few weeks, we have come across a number of things related to markets and agriculture that attracted our attention and, we think, deserve some...

Wheat The Brazilian government last week decided to lift its wheat import tax for non-Mercosur origins. The tax will be suspended from April to July of thi...

General Comments Overnight trading opened with the grains and soy complex trying to rally after the recent liquidation shakeout, but a flood of new selling...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Russian Grain Markets: 6-12 February 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,915 MT of grains for exchange trading on 6 February an...

State of the Union (SOTU) addresses are often eloquent speeches that rarely do more than bolster supporters and irritate detractors. Last night's version b...

USDA yesterday released its annual updated long-term projections for U.S. production and global trade of all major commodities. The projections are in many...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

SOTU and Food Safety: President Obama is expected to highlight many horrors of sequestration during his State of the Union address tonight. The goal is to...

The U.S. trade deficit dropped to a seasonally adjusted $38.5 billion in November, down 21 percent from October and the smallest deficit in nearly three ye...

USDA's annual Outlook Conference is held in late February, and just prior to it each year USDA releases its updated 10-year baseline projections for the ag...

General Comments Grain and soy futures markets saw another wave of non-commercial liquidation today amid heavy trading volume. It was not a panicky "get-me...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS Poultry prices in Egypt have experienced a sudden jump, with the cost of local chicken up by about 15 percent in the past coupl...

Low Grain Production Estimates The second estimates for India's 2012/13 grain production were released last week. Target production for the marketing year...

Soyoil Consumption Continues to Grow China's 2011/2012 edible oil consumption stands at 22.7 MMT, nearly a 1 percent increase year on year. Of that amount,...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Last week's collapse in new crop futures markets followed by Friday's meltdown in old crop soybean futures has producers spooked for the first time since t...

With 19 ethanol plants shutting down since June, the latest WASDE report now shows that 42 percent of the corn supply will go into ethanol. Production fell...

General Comments Most of the weekend commentary seemed to blame last Friday's collapse in the soybean market on the fact that USDA did not reduce Argentina...

Agricultural commodity prices may still rally on crop failures, but there are plenty of other fundamentals providing a bearish outlook (see table below). W...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market was very quiet this week. The rumors about one or two cargoes of U.S. SRW being sold to Russia remain unconfirmed...

The February WASDE report generally is not a market-maker, and today was no exception. The trade again was braced for a bearish report, especially in corn...

General Comments Following yesterday's steep losses in every contract except nearby soybeans, the markets generally traded close to the vest overnight and...

At the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) winter policy conference in Washington this week, animal welfare was among the topi...

Cuts Focus on Direct Payments: Leaders from the European Union member states agreed to a 960 billion-euro baseline during 2014-20, a 35 billion-euro reduct...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Regulatory Overlap: Some members of the U.S. Senate are proposing legislation to clear up a regulatory overlap that the courts created when they ruled that...

Chinese Pork Reserves Tapped Economic growth, lead time demand, and supply and delivery problems caused by cold weather in November and December have pushe...

Weather Dry weather continues to be the trend in Argentina, and there is concern about the corn and soybean yields. The forecast called for good rain cover...

An erstwhile wise man once observed that everything in life is cyclical. We are not sure how inclusive the use of the word "everything" was intended, but t...

General Comments Grain and soy futures prices were generally lower overnight, although trade was erratic as weather forecasts for the dry areas of South Am...

Coercing Argentine Soy Sales It is no secret the Argentine economy is in bad shape and getting worse. The country has runaway inflation and a plunging curr...

General Comments We commented yesterday that Stats Canada's estimate of Canadian canola stocks as of 31 December was slightly lower than expected and at a...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Russian Grain Markets: 30 January – 5 February 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,935 MT of grains for exchange trading on 5 F...

SOTU to Faltering: Earlier this week, it was speculated that President Obama might mention the launch of a trans-Atlantic trade agreement in his upcoming S...

Argentine Dryness an Increasing Concern The market is increasingly concerned about the ongoing dryness in Argentina and its possible impact on that country...

Argentina -- Aqui Vamos Otra Vez: Supermarkets in Argentina have been asked by the government to voluntarily freeze food prices in 2013. Buenos Aires hopes...

It is less than one month before the new 1 March sequestration deadline. The original sequester was to be triggered on 3 January 2013 if Congress failed to...

The CME Group's announcement yesterday that it would end open outcry pit trading of hard red winter wheat futures and options contracts at the Kansas City...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS GASC Vice Chairman Nomani Nomani last week said there is no reason to be concerned about supplies of wheat or wheat flour and t...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments The overnight session was dull; prices were mixed and the market lacked any enthusiasm for moving up or down. The only news, which was not...

2013 Political Economy and Implications Trade and non-oil commodity values will fare better than overall economic growth, but there is plenty of trouble ar...

Setting the 2013 renewable volume obligations (RVOs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was not the only ethanol-related policy update the Environment...

China's Urbanization Faces Food Challenges Officials from the Leading Group on Rural Work under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China recen...

General Comments The markets opened steady to higher Sunday based on less-than-expected rainfall across Argentina and a basically dry, warm forecast throug...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Changing Eating Habits and Values What are rising incomes and growing urbanization changing in India? Most experts point to food habits. As the saying goes...

Stiffing the Customer: If U.S. antitrust laws applied to government officials, Commerce Under Secretary for International Trade Francisco Sanchez would be...

Corn and soybeans have been the primary focus of the markets since last summer's U.S. Corn Belt drought. That drought didn't have much impact on U.S. wheat...

Soybeans are now in the first South Amnerican weather market of the year. The problem centers in Argentina, where it has gone from way too much rain in Oct...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the 2013 "renewable volume obligations" (RVOs) for 2013 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments Markets were again firm in the overnight trade and rallied higher early this morning led by double-digit gains in soybeans. We are in a we...

Milling Wheat The wheat market in the Black Sea is extremely quiet. The major Mediterranean and Middle Eastern destinations seem to be well covered for Feb...

Gloss over Good News: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued its recent "Surveillance for Foodborne Disease Outbreaks – United States 2009-2010" amid...

General Comments The weekly Export Sales report mostly fell below market expectations, but not by enough to be much of a market factor. Export sales in the...

Weather and Crops Most of Argentina's agricultural area received good rain coverage during August-December 2012. In some areas of Pampa Humeda, the core ag...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Export Sales Report Shows Slowing Soybean Sales for 2012/13 Today's USDA Export Sales report indicated U.S. exporters last week sold 386,000 MT of soybeans...

Here we are again in another January. This means that the world soybean industry is gearing up for its annual shift in focus from the U.S. soybean supplies...

Slapped and Squirming: Less than a week after a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had exceeded its authority by manda...

Japan Open to 30-Month-Old Beef Tomorrow Last week we reported that Japan could lift its beef import restrictions on U.S. beef for animals 30 months old by...

Russian Grain Markets: 23-29 January 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,928 MT of grains for exchange trading on 23 January 20...

Farm Bill Issues: There are at least two issues bubbling up amidst the effort to reauthorize the U.S. farm bill: BOBSAT and dairy. With farmland values ris...

General Comments Futures started out lower in overnight electronic trading, but it did not take long for support to develop. When corn and soybean prices p...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been considering several new "pathways" to advanced ethanol, including grain sorghum (see WPI 30 October...

It has often been said that "high prices are the best cure for high prices." We have used this old phrase more than once ourselves. The assumption is that...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS A long article in the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Ahram this week pointed out that for most Egyptians, little or nothing has ch...

Farm Labor Competitiveness: Politicians in Washington have begun rallying around the concept of finally enacting immigration reform. The bipartisan Senate...

General Comments In a letter to interested parties, the CME announced that even though it is still in the midst of surveying customers on trading hours, it...

Small Decline in Canadian Canola Planting Predicted Agriculture Canada this week issued its first forecast for crop plantings for 2013. The report surprise...

Bye, Bye Bali: Trade ministers meeting outside of the World Economic forum all agreed that they need to arrive at an initial package of trade provisions at...

China to Boost Dairy Investment Overseas Yashili, one of China's top dairy producers, recently announced that it will invest $210 million in building a mil...

Starch Sector Bleeding, Yet Expanding The production of corn during the major harvest season in October suffered because of scanty rainfall. Prices surged...

The markets have been expecting record crop production in Brazil and Argentina this year, and that has cast a bearish pale over the new crop markets. Weath...

General Comments Markets opened higher Sunday evening led by 6- to 8-cent gains in soybeans. The Sunday afternoon weather was slightly warmer and drier for...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

President Obama has promised to take up immigration reform during this session of Congress, and post-election -- especially after all the slicing and dicin...

We Were Wrong: A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that people were best at comp...

Everyone understands that world weather in 2013 will be critically important to commodity suppliers and prices. World feed grains supplies are hovering aro...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market has been quiet this week and no major trades were reported. The EU allocated 364,000 MT of export licenses, bringi...

General Comments Markets were mixed overnight in relatively light volume. Trading volume in the last hour today was pathetically small. Yesterday's late re...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

A federal court today rejected a key part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandate for cellulosic fuels, but it also ruled against a complaint...

General Comments On a day in which fresh news or market inputs were very limited to nonexistent, traders were forced to turn to South American weather fore...

Corn ARGENTINA Both the old crop and new crop corn markets in Argentina have remained pretty quiet. Several sellers are still holding parcels or cargoes to...

LDP Chooses TPP: Reports indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instructed his cabinet ministers to begin more proactively pursuing trade neg...

India Doubles Benchmark Vegoil Import Prices The Indian government today raised the minimum taxable price for vegoil imports as expected. The minimum impor...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Where's the Beef, or Pork, or Chicken? It is probably unfair to delve too deeply into the meaning of the menu at the presidential inaugural luncheon, but t...

It has been nearly two weeks since USDA released the quarterly stocks report, final U.S. corn and soybean production estimates, planted winter wheat acreag...

USDA Ignores USTR: Part of the Obama government is upset about the growing number of government requirements around the world that goods and services be pu...

General Comments Overnight trade in grains and the soy complex began with mixed results. Corn and wheat seemed to want to move lower, but the continued cha...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Russian Grain Markets: 16-22 January 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,793 MT of grains for exchange trading on 16 January 20...

Big Increase in China's Soymeal Exports in CY 2012 Since China built about twice as much soybean crush capacity as its actual crush volume, there has been...

Shifting trade flows for major agricultural commodities are usually directed by prices and comparative values. When it comes to agricultural trade, it has...

General Comments After the Monday holiday, the first trading of the week opened last night with wheat, corn and soybeans prices moving higher. There seemed...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

The weather in 2012 was dramatic, to say the least. The U.S. had a record drought in its heartland and a hurricane, dubbed Superstorm Sandy, on the East Co...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The European Union last week announced that it could provide Egypt with $6.5 billion in loans, grants and credit lines. As expe...

Every year, and often several times a year, we are obliged to write about the U.S. crop insurance program. It is a very important piece of the acreage puzz...

Milling Wheat The wheat market in the Black Sea was very quiet this week. Apart from a rumor that a cargo of Ukrainian wheat traded at $350 FOB, there were...

General Comments Markets were generally firm overnight with soybeans showing more strength than corn or wheat. That changed about the time the U.S. came to...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

As Washington -- and the U.S. economy -- has been looking out over the fiscal cliff, some perspective has been lost on the economic landscape traversed in...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Mystery Meat Ingredient: Horse Burger Last week Sweden discovered that exports of meat labeled "Argentine beef tenderloin" from Hungary were in fact dyed p...

U.S. Soy Export Sales Much Higher Than Expected Market analysts surveyed by Dow Jones this week expected today's USDA export sales report to show that last...

General Comments Grain and soy futures were generally weaker in overnight trading. When March soybeans could not hold above their four-week high, technical...

Experts a Skeptical Lot: WPI surveyed 32 top level experts in the Washington agriculture and trade community, several with direct trade negotiation experie...

Australia is experiencing record fire danger and, at the time of writing this report, has over 100 wildfires. Firefighters have struggled to cope with doze...

Soybeans: More Activity in Brazil and PNW, Little Movement in Argentina Soybeans had good movement last week in the PNW for spot positions. This origin was...

We hesitate to belabor the series of reports from USDA last week. Yet we cannot stay away from them because of the changes forced upon the prevailing conve...

Useful Data: WTO Director General Pascal Lamy announced jointly with the OECD a new database calculating the value-added aspects of traded goods and servic...

General Comments Following the bullish reports from USDA, grain and soy futures prices strengthened as the need to slow down the domestic use of corn and b...

The soy complex dominated the markets as a "star performer" on Wednesday, 15 January 1997, and set a "firm tone" for the corn market. According to WPI's ma...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Russian Grain Markets: 8-15 January 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,978 MT of grains for exchange trading on 15 January 201...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS There was a great deal of discussion this week regarding financing for Egypt, much of it in hopes of supporting the Egyptian po...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Well, USDA's January 2013 reports lived up to the reputation that the January reports have for being exciting. The increased final production estimates for...

Congress will be preoccupied with fiscal matters this year. The following is a short look at the fiscal timeline that will dictate the upcoming schedule fo...

USDA Report Shows Predicting Soybean Yields Not Easy Last Friday's USDA NASS final crop production report indicated the U.S. soybean crop in 2012 totaled 3...

Vilsack Needed on Farm Bill: Previous administrations have been highly engaged with Congress in the writing of new farm bills. The Reagan Administration ha...

General Comments Prior to the 11 January reports from USDA, grain and soy markets slumped because of a sense that prices had already gone high enough, that...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is in Nashville to address the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). Back in Washington, USDA Director of Communications Matt...

UnCOOL Damage: The Canadian Pork Council released the results of its study proclaiming $500 million in damages annually as a result of the U.S. Country of...

The markets have responded to last Friday's bullish corn and wheat reports as expected. Today's steep rally in the soybean market was perhaps a little stro...

General Comments Asia and Europe came back to work last night for the first time since USDA's reports were released last Friday. Markets opened very firm a...

China to Boost Biotech Industry The State Council, China's national cabinet, on 8 January announced that the government will provide further support to the...

Indian Wheat Poised For Better Price Recovery Following up on the story from 7 January 2013, the current weather conditions in North India are optimal for...

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea had a quiet start after the holidays. The Russian and the Ukrainian old crop wheat positions are practically unsp...

Lost (so far) in the debate over the federal deficit and debt ceiling is perhaps the most basic question: What is the goal of federal deficit reduction? Th...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Today's USDA reports were very bullish corn, somewhat bullish wheat and neutral for soybeans. Here are the key issues: Corn 1 December corn stocks more th...

General Comments It was a particularly vicious day across the agricultural markets today. Everything was weak most of the night, and that weakness turned i...

TPA Moves Up: Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the U.S. president's ability to ask Congress for an up or down vote on trade agreements, thus barring them f...

General Comments There is not a lot to say about the markets during the last full trading day before the key USDA reports. Traders were working on position...

The ability of scientists to introduce genetic traits from outside sources into common agricultural crops (GMO crops) has caused more controversy during th...

Postharvest Attention: The Institution of Mechanical Engineers received media attention for its somewhat self-serving report on the post-harvest food losse...

Moderate Soy Export Sales Last Week Today's USDA FAS export sales reports showed moderate soy export sales last week. Total soybean export sales for 2012/1...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Chicken Profits Fly Higher on Wings The holidays (and maybe more importantly, the college football bowl season and professional football playoffs) have com...

A New Year Begins: How About Logistics? By the end of 2012, many companies were looking forward to the New Year. It had not been a good campaign in general...

Russian Grain and Oilseed Markets: 24-28 December 2012 Due to the holidays (31 December – 7 January), information on the Russian grain and oilseed markets...

Farm Bill Hurdle: Lobbyists are paid to make things happen in Washington, but ultimately their power is derived from the size and importance of the clients...

Like it or not, USDA's January reports can take their toll on the markets. Ben Beneke on Thursday, 11 January 2001 observed that a "great deal of anticipat...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments NOAA's National Climatic Data Center released its report on 2012 which declares that the average U.S. temperature for 2012 was 55.3 degree...

As markets and market participants make ready for the important bevy of USDA reports on Friday (11 January), we thought we should make way for them by clea...

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) has asked that the speaker and...

There was a bearish lean in everyone's outlook for 2013 agricultural commodity markets (see graph below). Presumably, there is a bearish and volatile view...

General Comments Trading during the overnight session was quiet and without much direction as prices chopped about narrow ranges. Fresh input was lacking,...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS A meeting between Egyptian leaders and senior IMF staff is expected to be held this week in Cairo to discuss details of the $4...

Indian Soymeal Exports Fall Sharply in December The Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) of India this week reported that Indian soymeal exports in Decemb...

Congress is back in session, and one of the first orders of business will be to confirm several new Cabinet members, including the following: Senator Joh...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Partial Food Safety: The Obama Administration finally issued part of the proposed regulations for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act approved...

Wheat Export Possibility: Can the 10 MMT Mark Be Reached? The government of India (GOI) and its agencies are very much concerned about the huge wheat stock...

Corn Sales Pick Up in Northeast China Before the New Year After the cash corn market's low trading volume trend prevailed for a couple weeks, corn sales in...

USDA will release a series of reports at 11 a.m. this Friday, 11 January that could have a major impact on markets' directions. These reports -- which incl...

General Comments The trading pattern of the markets was reversed from the recent "norm" last night and today. That might have been a slight disturbance in...

General Comments The grain and oilseed markets continue to repeat the daily pattern we have seen since the fund liquidation started at the tail end of 2012...

Where Fools Rush In Twice In yesterday's report, WPI's Bob Kohlmeyer provided his commodity market prognostications for 2013 entitled, "Where Fools Rush In...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

The durum market has done absolutely nothing over the past several months, while prices for nearly every other agricultural commodity were setting new all-...

The fiscal cliff legislation that brought about the nine-month extension of the 2008 Farm Bill could mean that what nearly accomplished in terms of a new f...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments In December the Fed's FOMC voted to buy $85 billion of Treasury notes and mortgage bonds each month for an indefinite period of time. This...

Long ago an old trader friend once told us that predicting the future is a harmless game unless one actually bets real money on his predictions. After all,...

Retroactive Biodiesel Blenders' Credits Congress and the White House ultimately worked out a legislative fix that avoided the fiscal cliff scheduled to tak...

Contrasting Reactions to Technology: New York Times food bloviator Mark Bittman's New Year's toast accuses "hyper-industrial" agriculture of causing a half...

Beef Feed Efficiency The U.S. cattle herd is at its smallest in more than 60 years and at a point where rebuilding is paramount for the future. In the near...

Soybeans: Big crops in South America The last soybean campaign in South America was very disappointing. In November 2011, everyone was predicting productio...

Part 1 of Tax Battle Done, Longer War Ahead: There was no grand bargain in Washington over the New Year holiday, and that means more political rumble for w...

General Comments Most financial and commodity markets enthusiastically greeted the Congress's passage of a last minute fix that avoids (at least for now) t...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Commodities might have been the best performing asset class in 2010, but that soon changed in the following year. According to WPI's Bob Kohlmeyer on Tuesd...

Russian Grain and Oilseed Markets: 24-28 December 2012 Due to the holidays (31 December – 7 January), information on the Russian grain and oilseed markets...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Government Increases Assured Wheat Price The Indian government (GOI) last week increased the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat by $11.81/MT, an increas...

General Comments The markets started steady to higher in extremely light volume Sunday evening, with soybeans trading as much as 7-8 cents higher. Volume w...

Illegal Drug in China's Poultry Production Raises Public Concerns China Central Television (CCTV), the nation's largest media outlet, recently reported tha...

Meat and Veggie Outlook: Food fashion prognosticators are saying that participants in meatless days will increase in 2013. This is likely due to a variety...

Both House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders have agreed to an extension (i.e. until 30 September 2013) of certain provisions of the current farm bi...

The New Year will get off to a very nervous start with three major factors set to impact at the least the first few weeks of trading in 2013. Those factors...

General Comments The markets today repeated the pattern of the past several sessions. They were all firm overnight led by 12- to 14-cent gains in soybeans,...

No matter how you cut it, 2012 was a very good year to be a famer in the U.S. Not drought, pestilence or fiscal cliff could slow the juggernaut of rising n...

Livestock Traceability Now in Place USDA is scheduled to publish the final rule on livestock traceability today after last week announcing its completion...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments Overnight trade was quiet in the absence of new inputs. Wheat was weaker with some traders trying to run ahead of index funds that are lik...

Fiscal Cliff: Maytagged But Not Ended The fiscal cliff will be breeched. This is inevitable given that politicians in Washington during these final days ar...

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson today announced her resignation. She is the second member of the Obama Cabinet to do so; S...

Kick the can is, or perhaps we should say was, a children's game, a version of hide and seek. We can recall playing it when we were very young, but our sen...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

As we approach the end of 2012, it is worth taking a look back at the year's major events in the oilseeds sector and what may be in store in 2013. Perhaps...

General Comments Futures markets opened at 10:30 ET this morning for the first time since the Christmas holiday, but judging from today's very light tradin...

Animal Ag Beefs: For too long governments have resigned themselves to incurring the illegal trade practices of others on the basis that negotiation is bett...

Russian Grain Markets: 17-21 December 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,935 MT of grains for exchange trading on 19 December...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Corn Market Gains Strength Basis levels in the Argentine new corn market had been dropping slowly because of a lack of demand. Nevertheless, as FAS prices...

'Twas the day after Christmas (on 26 December 2003), and all through the markets it was anything but quiet during another shortened trading session. WPI's...

Picking One's Battles: FDA is seeking 60 days of public comment on its proposed approval of AquAdvantage's genetically modified salmon. The environmental a...

The older you get, the shorter your Christmas list gets. And so it is with me. The list not only becomes shorter but also simpler. And so it is with my mar...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Food Security Bill Update The much anticipated national food security bill aims to provide and distribute 24 kilograms of food grains at a subsidized price...

General Comments Markets were firm overnight and this morning in extremely light Christmas Eve trading. In fact, trade volume was much lighter than expecte...

Seven new Republicans were appointed to the House Agriculture committee: two farmers, a large animal vet and four others who have not been so steeped in th...

Japanese Pivot: They were against it before they were for it. The new Japanese coalition government (LDP/New Komeito) announced post-election policy change...

The Advanced Ethanol Coalition (AEC) this week issued an industry progress report for cellulosic biofuels that shows "a detailed look at the progress made...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Here are a few more things to keep you up at night as we head home for the long holiday weekend. It appears we survived the end of the world according to...

Milling Wheat The offers for Ukrainian and Russian wheat practically have disappeared due to the lack of farmers selling and bad weather in ports. Part of...

General Comments The world survived the end of the Mayan calendar myth. Now we must see if we survive the fiscal cliff. The failure of the House Republican...

Government Markets Typically Gamed The EU member states voted to impose a 9.6 percent tariff on ethanol imported from the U.S. over the next five years, as...

I am in Japan this week meeting with a wide array of individuals involved in Japan's trading, animal feed and animal production sectors. The meetings have...

General Comments The proposed acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the InterContinental Exchange (ICE) is a continuation of the pattern of consolidation among d...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

An amendment to the Hurricane Sandy relief bill that would have extended livestock and specialty crop disaster assistance into next year failed in the Sena...

Back on 5 January 2012 we found our crystal ball that we had misplaced tucked in the back of a closet. We dusted it off, and looked to see what it had to s...

General Comments Overnight trading in grain and soy futures was quiet and without much direction. Dalian soybean futures posted losses following yesterday'...

Russian Grain Markets: 13-18 December 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,990 MT of grains for exchange trading on 18 December...

USDA, USTR Out of Sync: USDA has been at the forefront of encouraging consumption from local sources (Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food) and has had to be d...

It's almost that time of year when markets seem to embrace the holiday mood. Looking back, the markets on Thursday, 19 December 1996 were lightly traded. F...

Wheat Argentina's Domestic Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno recently met with exporters to inform them of the 20 percent cut in export licenses. It was...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Grains and the soy complex opened mixed in overnight trading, but the complex soon came under pressure from slumping soymeal prices on Chi...

Higher Prices Needed to Ration Soybean Demand Last week's export sales report and this week's NOPA crush report shows the pace of U.S. soybean use is quick...

News coverage of the nation's fiscal cliff dilemma has become something akin to a game show. Just as an audience roots for contestants, the press is now ch...

The first quarter (September-November) of the 2012/13 U.S. soybean year has flown by, and we are into the early weeks of the second quarter. That the first...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The IMF loan agreement with Egypt has been postponed until January 2013 at the request of the Egyptian government due to the cu...

WTO Litigation Up: The number of dispute settlement cases filed at the WTO has skyrocketed, forcing the organization to reassign staff to deal with the wor...

General Comments Today was another disappointing day for the bulls. Markets opened very firm yesterday afternoon with soybeans showing double-digit gains m...

Egg Production to Increase in India The growth of India's egg sector in the last few years has been impressive. Even with high feed costs, production grew...

We have long maintained that the math behind the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is unsustainable. As previously asserted, 2013 will be the year that RFS ref...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Soybean Crusher Operation Rate Rises in China Because China's soybean crushing margin improved in the first half of the month, the crusher operation rate h...

It is almost the end of December and it is still raining across much of Argentina. The forecast this week still looks wet. Over the weekend 1-2 more inches...

This week's soybean story was one of unbridled demand. Weekly U.S. soybean export sales set an all-time high for this marketing year at 1.3 MMT (47.7 milli...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Earlier this week (see WPI 11 December) we wrote that the potential reinstatement of the biodiesel blenders' tax credit could impact Brazilian sugar ethano...

General Comments Markets were trading higher across the board most of the day led by strong gains in the soy complex. Demand for soybeans and soy products...

This week I am in Dubai, United Arab Emirates to participate in a regional conference for the Middle East and North Africa organized by the U.S. Soybean Ex...

Speaking Truth to Power In an interview with the Nikkei, Japanese Foreign Trade Council Chairman Shoei Utsuda astutely explained why his country should joi...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Cattle Efficiency It's been said that a statistician can have his feet in a bucket of ice and his head in an oven and declare that "on average" he feels fi...

Farm Bill Angst The House and Senate Agriculture Committees are moving closer to an agreed compromise on the farm bill's new commodity, which would accommo...

We note with interest that a bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would merge the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), w...

General Comments There was a reasonable volume of trade in grains and the complex overnight, and prices traded both sides. Soybeans were the strongest foll...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. According to WPI's Emily French, during the week ending Friday, 10 December 2004, wheat was the story...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

USG Blames Ethanol A report by the U.S. government's National Intelligence Council entitled "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds" this week brought medi...

General Comments The December meeting of the Federal Reserve's FOMC was expected to be pro forma, but it developed into something more. The Fed redefined a...

Russian Grain Markets: 3-12 December 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,880 MT of grains for exchange trading on 11 December 2...

Weather and Crops Between 28 November and 5 December, soil moisture levels greatly increased in Argentina. Between 25-100 millimeters of rain fell over the...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The state of the Egyptian government and economy seems to change daily, adding a great deal of insecurity to the business envir...

The December WASDE met everyone's expectations, which is to say that without fresh production estimates for U.S. corn and soybeans, it was broadly unexciti...

Ag Secretary for USDA USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack's heavily reported comments at last week's Farm Journal Forum were at once instructive and disappointing...

Pushing High-Oleic Soybeans The United Soybean Board (USB) last week committed to a five-year multimillion-dollar effort to expand the production of high-o...

General Comments There is not much to say about today's grain and soy markets except that wheat reacted to bearish numbers, and the other markets reacted t...

As we have reported in the past, the disparity in Renewable Identification Number (RIN) prices for conventional versus advanced ethanol has been a de facto...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Price of Non-Enforcement U.S. officials have warned Russia that its announced ban on imports of beef and pork with residues of the lean muscle enhancing dr...

USDA tomorrow will release its December WASDE numbers at 7:30 a.m., and the open outcry session will start trading at 7:20 a.m. as a result. This will be t...

General Comments Markets were basically steady during much of the overnight trading hours with soybeans trading back and forth while corn and wheat were ge...

Sugarcane and Sugar Pricing Deficient monsoon rains have negatively affected sugarcane crop yields, according to an Indian Ministry of Agriculture report...

The news is saturated with talk about the fiscal cliff and its impact on the economy. What if -- just for argument's sake -- the cliff is not as big as we...

China Purchases 30 MMT of Grain for Reserves As previously reported, the Chinese government began its state reserve purchase program in early November. By...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Gary Blumenthal yesterday wrote about the newest Republican members of the House Agriculture Committee and the controversy surrounding the removal of Tim H...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments It was another quiet session in the markets overnight. Soybeans were steady to slightly higher while corn and wheat were steady to slightl...

Greed and Climate Change: Greed will cause UN climate change negotiations to end this weekend in Doha, Qatar without agreement. The negotiations were made...

Milling Wheat Some limited offers for Ukrainian and Russian wheat can still be found for December/January, but buyers are very reluctant because of the ris...

Bob Kohlmeyer and John Baize both wrote about the U.S. and world soybean situation this week. It is indeed fascinating, and it is almost a certainty that i...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Unexciting and low volume characterized the overnight Globex trading. Markets are still starved for something on which to trade. At least...

Expanding DETs Paraguay's national Senate approved legislation imposing a 10 percent export tax on unprocessed soybeans as well as on wheat and corn. The m...

USDA will release the December WASDE next Tuesday, 11 December. This will be the last WASDE scheduled to be released at the traditional 8:30 a.m. ET. Start...

Weather and Crops Rain continued to fall across Argentina last week, especially over the central-northern part of the agricultural region. More rain in the...

COOL Deadline in May A World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitrator on Monday decided that the United States has until 23 May 2013 to bring the country of ori...

Dispute Settlement Slugfest: Trade lawyers this week find themselves up to their keisters in WTO dispute settlement cases. For too long trade litigation ha...

With USDA set to release the WASDE next Tuesday, 11 December, it's worth remembering that while the December supply and demand revisions typically do not s...

COOL on Ice It will be more than four-and-a-half years after the U.S. implemented an intentionally discriminatory country of origin labeling (COOL) require...

General Comments Once again, traders had nothing new to go on during the overnight session other than the ability of yesterday's market to defend its recen...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Russian Grain Markets: 26-30 November 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,935 MT of grains for exchange trading on 4 December...

Update on Global Sunseed Supply Periodically it is worthwhile to take a look at each of the main oilseed sectors other than soybeans and rapeseed. In this...

It has been a strange 12 months for the soybean complex to say the least. The drought in Brazil and Argentina that stretched from December 2011 through Feb...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Silver Bullets from Food Science Researchers and industry are on a path where food will solve some of the largest risks to human health: non-communicable d...

General Comments Markets feed on what can be loosely defined as news, and when fresh supplies of news are limited, markets can grow tired and head for the...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS Not much specifically pertaining to grain from Egypt this week, other than the GASC tender details shown further down in the re...

While Washington is locked in high stakes negotiations over the fiscal cliff, the economy is doing just fine, thank you. It's not flourishing, but it is no...

With all the talk about new taxes and their potential role in deficit reduction, Senator Bruce Vitter (R-Louisiana) and Representative Mike Pompeo (R-Kansa...

Different Takes on India's Economy India's economic growth slipped to a nine-year low of 6.5 percent for 2011/12 and to 5.5 percent for the quarter ending...

Economic Slowdown Curbs China's Meat Consumption China's economic growth has shown signs of slowing down, falling from 8.1 percent (Q1) to 7.6 percent (Q2)...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Wheat has been the topic of conversation for the past few weeks. We have pointed out that U.S. and world supplies continue to decline as production levels...

General Comments If you have grown tired of the "risk on, risk off" analysis, so have we. But today we were back to "risk on." World financial markets were...

The U.S. drought continues to worsen, particularly across the central Southern Plains where the HRW wheat crop is produced. The weekly crop ratings have co...

General Comments Markets leaked lower overnight, this time led by weakness in the soy complex. It was first notice day for deliveries against the December...

Farm Bill Movements If a deal can be reached on the fiscal cliff, it looks likely that a new farm bill could be part of the plan following that signal from...

It is hard to handicap the progress of the farm bill. There is growing momentum to attach the bill to a "grand compromise" fiscal-cliff averting package. T...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Milling Wheat Offers for Ukrainian and Russian wheat are difficult to find, especially for January onwards. The Ukrainian government still has not declared...

"Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." This is an old cliche, the truth of which has never been more evident than during th...

Pork Getting Grilled by Interest Groups First, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) filed a complaint with USDA alleging that the National Pork B...

Weather and Crops More rain fell across most of Argentina's agricultural area during the past week. The map below indicates the amount received as of 26 No...

Large U.S. Soymeal and Soyoil Exports Sales, Soybean Sales Slump Today's USDA Export Sales report indicated U.S. exporters last week had net export sales o...

General Comments Overnight trade in grains and the soy complex opened slightly lower, and then slightly edged above the previous closes. Volume was light...

Trading Dysfunction: Usually Brussels appears to be dysfunctional and Washington efficient by comparison, but it seems to be the opposite at the moment. Wh...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Frankness When Abroad: EU Parliament President Martin Schultz made clear in Washington this week that Brussels greatly desires a Trans-Atlantic trade agree...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Overnight grain and soy futures activity basically involved traders stepping back and taking deep breaths after yesterday's big rally. Vol...

A little over four years ago (see WPI Wednesday, 26 November 2008), China and the EU announced their respective economic stimulus packages, prompting WPI's...

Russian Grain Markets: 19-23 November 2012 Export Update Russia has exported 11.38 MMT of grains since 1 July 2012, according to the Russian Ministry of Ag...

EU Biodiesel Imports Will Reach Record High Level in 2012 Oil World indicates the EU is likely to import a record volume of biodiesel in CY 2012. During th...

Brazil's Currency War: The major players shot down Brazil's effort to create teeth in the global trading rules (WTO) for countering intentional currency ma...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS There was quite a bit of news on the IMF $4.8 billion loan to Egypt this week, but unfortunately not all of it was good. Midwee...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Lawmakers are resigned to the likely eventuality that the farm bill will be subject to an extension -- possibly up to a year, maybe shorter. The one hope o...

Wheat markets finally have begun to focus on the continued severe drought covering the Plains HRW production area. USDA's weekly crop condition report for...

General Comments Grain and soy markets have plenty of things to chew on these days. On the macro side there is the on again-off again-on again Greek debt r...

Ethanol Blending Program in India Takes Off The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has finally approved a new ethanol blending program, making it...

Congress is back for the lame duck session, and the Representatives- and Senators-elect are in Washington for orientation. Wherever there is a group of pol...

General Comments Some people expected fireworks when markets opened Sunday afternoon following the long holiday weekend, but they were disappointed. Corn,...

Over the weekend I received e-mails from three Southern Hemisphere farmers whom I have known for many years. I thought their comments were worth sharing in...

China to Suspend Soybean State Reserve Auction China's National Grains and Oil Information Center (CNGOIC) recently announced that starting from the week o...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Un-Free and Unfair Trade As previously noted (see WPI 21 November), the U.S. Commerce Department is allowing tomato growers in the U.S. and Mexico to collu...

While the market awaits the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set the 2013 "renewable volume obligations" (RVOs) for all biofuels except biodiesel (...

Today felt like the good old days in many respects. The most important one is that no markets opened until 9:30 a.m. this morning and they closed at noon...

General Comments Markets were dark from 2:00 p.m. last Wednesday until 9:30 a.m. this morning. It was one of those rare days when it felt like the "good ol...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, it is time to see if the "turkey trend" holds true once again. As WPI's Bob Kohlmeyer once described (WPI 21 November 200...

Consumers Missing in Tomato Spat: U.S. Commerce Undersecretary for International Trade Francisco Sanchez told reporters that the antidumping dispute on tom...

Russian Grain Markets: 12-16 November 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,899 MT of grains for exchange trading on 14 November...

General Comments Today's price action reminds me of an observation a friend once made about prices within a trend. My friend, a Chinese commodity trader, n...

Wheat Market The old crop wheat market has disappeared. New crop wheat is being harvested and the first shipment will take place in December. No trades wer...

Being involved in agriculture and agribusiness, being once a farm owner, and being a long time consumer of food, we watched with more than just passing int...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS GASC, Egypt's main government wheat buyer, has officially dropped Ukraine from its list of approved suppliers. However, it was...

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) sent a letter last Friday to Ron Kirk, the U.S. Trade Representative, regarding U.S. ethanol exports to Brazil. The l...

Noble Group to Build Soybean Crush Plant in Paraguay An official with a Paraguay industry group (CAPPRO) today said Noble Group plans to build a soybean cr...

Trade Negotiation Indicators: A 'round the globe update ... Regional/FTAs: Trade negotiations are alive and well. The newly announced Asia-Pacific center...

General Comments The CME markets are beginning to recognize that the problem of low water in the Mississippi River and probable restrictions on draft are l...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Corn Exports from India to Continue The world grain situation remains tight amid speculation about India's wheat business. There are questions about wheat...

I participated in two large wheat conferences over the past two weeks. One was the ALIM conference in Merida, Mexico, and the other was for wheat buyers an...

General Comments It was one of those rare "risk on" days today following what seems like weeks of fear-related selling. The fiscal cliff suddenly has becom...

Significant Amount of New Rapeseed Crop Left Unprocessed in China Recent statistics show that about 5.9 MMT of rapeseed in China are being purchased by gra...

This weekend, Republican congressional leaders sat at the White House to discuss how to avoid the fiscal cliff. The media covered the meeting with great en...

General Comments There were all sorts of factors affecting the grain and oilseed markets today, none of which were supportive. The worries included: The...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Korea Starts Buying New Crop South American Soymeal Two Korean feed manufacturing groups today bought one cargo each of South American soymeal for delivery...

There has been no shortage of things to keep us awake at night, but here are a few more to worry about: Fiscal cliffs. They seem to be everywhere. Keep s...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today denied requests from several governors and the livestock industry to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard...

Milling Wheat The Ukrainian government warned Egypt's GASC that Ukrainian wheat exports would be banned starting 1 December. This news did not come as a su...

Environment for Legislation Earlier this year so many in the U.S. Congress deemed passing permanent normal trading relations (PNTR) with Russia to be such...

General Comments As dire as the U.S. soybean and corn supply situation may prove to be, futures markets can trade on them only so long before turning to so...

Weather and Crops The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange released its Weekly Agricultural Outlook last Thursday, 8 November. During that week (1-8 November), week...

Last month's feeder calf placements data points to a changing supply situation for the beef market next quarter. Similarly, feedlots' fed cattle marketings...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

A friend, whose two passions in life, aside from his family, are commodity futures markets and the theater, recently likened the corn and wheat markets to...

Broken Organic Window The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has frequently proven its ignorance of both science and economics. Once again, it was economi...

General Comments Overnight futures trade saw a modest bounce in grain and soybean prices following yesterday's open outcry session that saw corn, soybeans...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

WPI's Dan Basse observed that single-minded liquidation was the theme  at the start of the week of 12 November 2007. Especially concerning was slowing...

Russian Grain Markets: 5-9 November 2012 Export Updates Last month Russia exported 350,037 MT of barley, down 1.5 percent from October 2011. Of that amount...

Farm Income Fails Poor William Savedoff of the Center for Global Development notes that evaluations of farmer training programs funded by the Millennium Ch...

The prospect of locking in multiple months of corn futures in a clock contract that has an average price somewhere between $6.75-7.25 should not be neglect...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTs The Egyptian government said that the amount it pays out to farmers for wheat will increase by 5.2 percent for the 2013 wheat s...

DETs Under Attack The EU Commission will undertake an anti-dumping investigation into biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia. The investigation was...

Farm Bill Angle Aggies are trying every angle feasible for getting a five-year farm bill through the lame duck Congress. The latest is offering up the cuts...

Congress is back in session today after a brief campaign recess (even though the campaigns weren't so brief). One of the first orders of business is the pe...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Grain and soy futures markets tried to rally in overnight trade, and prices moved modestly higher mostly due to profit-taking, although en...

Following the November WASDE released last Friday, the market's attention was primarily focused soybeans and USDA's increased yield and production estimate...

Last Friday's USDA reports have clearly removed the soybean and oilseeds markets from the leadership position -- at least for now. The big soybean producti...

General Comments The U.S. government and the banking system were closed today for the Veteran's Day holiday. There were no USDA reports. The weekly export...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

We've been predicting for about a year that Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) reform will ripen as an issue in 2013. We stand by that. There will be a controve...

China Rice Imports Increase Sharply in 2012 According to the latest data from China Customs, China's first nine months of rice imports reached 1.87 MMT, a...

Will India's Economic Growth Keep Pace? India's economic growth may stagnate anywhere between 5-6 percent this fiscal year, and may continue to fall below...

Today's USDA crop production estimates and WASDE revisions confirmed what the market has been expecting (and trading) for the past week or longer. The U.S...

De Gucht Sings U.S. Ag Song U.S. agriculture groups are insisting that any Trans-Atlantic trade negotiation must include improved access for their products...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments Markets were lower most of the overnight period as traders anticipated that the USDA reports would be at least bearish soybeans and at bes...

The political class is the chattering class. With the election over, most denizens in Washington cannot help but spread -- or even create -- some informed...

Milling Wheat Ukraine's wheat export ban has yet to be made official. The government has been criticized by both the EU and the IMF after last month announ...

Animal Elections The most expensive presidential election in U.S. history is over. How did the animal agriculture industry fare with who/what they backed a...

General Comments The December corn contract basically has been forming a consolidating-wedge pattern since the middle of October. Normally, the formation o...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

China to Buy New Crop Soybeans from Farmers Reports out of China indicate China's National Development and Reform Commission next week will send a proposal...

In yesterday's WPI report, Gary Blumenthal and Dave Juday gave their assessments of the effect of the U.S. election results on various issues related to U...

Weather and Crops No rains fell in Argentina's agricultural area during the past week. In fact, most areas received sunny, hot weather that helped dry the...

One day after losing their bid in California to require labeling of foods produced with biotech, antagonists are saying they will "out" foods with such con...

It was a status quo election from the standpoint of political control in Washington, but that does not mean that things stand still or can now move forward...

If there is one thing for which the Congressional Agriculture Committees historically have been known for, it is their bipartisan cooperation. A prime exam...

As Greece readies itself for a crucial vote on new austerity measures, it seems appropriate to look back and see how European sovereign debt problems weigh...

General Comments After the costliest election ever, President Obama won a second term, the Democrats increased their margin of control in the Senate (thoug...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Russian Grain Markets: 29 October – 2 November 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,935 MT of grains for exchange trading on 6 N...

Years of Missing Beef A Japanese Health Ministry panel approved the age increase from 20 months to 30 months for cattle supplying imported beef. The 20-mon...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Today is Election Day, and most U.S. markets closed higher. The Dow was up 133 points several minutes before the stock markets close. The...

The Futures Industry Association (FIA), the principal trade association for the derivatives industry, periodically publishes a variety of information on de...

The Future of Food II Foodies are working hard to return the food system to the good old days, but actual consumer choices make high-technology food the li...

Today is Election Day in the United States. Up for grabs are the presidency, all House seats and one-third of the Senate. Since we last wrote about the sta...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS IMF officials are now in Cairo to negotiate the $4.8 billion loan that has been discussed for several months now. The IMF group...

Soybean Plantings in Argentina Delayed by Flooding Last year Argentina suffered a severe drought that sharply cut its soybean production. This year the pro...

Last week I was in central North Dakota along with 40 or 50 farmers at a meeting sponsored by the Carrington Area Farm Business Management group. Certainly...

General Comments The soy complex started the week on a lower note Sunday with corn and wheat markets steady. Overnight volume was moderate. Soybeans were s...

India Increases Support Prices In a politically motivated decision that is going to cost government of India more, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affair...

China's January-September Wheat Imports Reach Seven-Year High China's January-September wheat imports reached a seven-year high at 3.21 MMT. Though it is t...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments Markets were soft overnight and this morning with soybeans showing the greatest weakness. Corn, soybean and wheat futures did not close we...

The Australian wheat harvest has all but begun, with deliveries in Western Australia and Queensland. Harvest is not expected to begin in earnest for anothe...

In terms of agriculture, the estate tax is one of the bigger concerns in the potpourri of issues that make up the impending fiscal cliff. If left unaddre...

GSP and the 21st Century The European Union has announced a revision to its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) that grants duty-free access for goods...

Weather and Crops More rain fell over a majority of Argentina's agricultural area in the past day. The map below shows the rainfall received during 1-22 Oc...

General Comments Yesterday's price rally carried into the overnight session and then into the day session this morning. There may have been some first-of-t...

EPA Meeting with Industry on Fake Biodiesel RINs Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be meeting with industry representatives ove...

Two months certainly do not make a crop year, but for corn and soybeans this past September and October have provided plenty of interesting things to consi...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

CAP Reform At the insistence of the net contributors to the budget in Brussels, the EU's Council of Ministers issued a recommendation for at least 5.65 bil...

Soybean production in Brazil has been spilling over into Brazilian pasture land, forcing more confinement feeding of Brazilian beef. This corresponds with...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Russian Grain Markets: 22-26 October 2012 Harvesting Update As of 26 October, Russian farmers have harvested 72.2 MMT of grains and grain legumes: 39.6 M...