USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack reportedly recommended that his successor be a former governor. It is an understandable intuitive viewpoint, but not one held up by facts. Sting Like a Bee The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service proposed today that the rusty patched bumblebee be listed as endangered. The bee lives in 12 states plus Canada, and a listing would have significant impact on the ability of agriculture to use pesticides. While the agency may develop reasonable protection protocols, environmental groups will use the courts to press for more stringent mitigation efforts and include more species over time. AGOA Redux WPI has expressed the view that a more reciprocal trading relationship is needed with African countries and that corruption...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
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.