Russian Grain Markets: 10–14 July 2023 The Russian grain market was driven purely by a weak RUB which was registered from the beginning of the month. Even though the reference price dropped, the government increased the export duty for wheat probably speculating that prices will grow anyway because Russia has no intention of continuing the BSGI (Black Sea Grain Initiative), at least in the previous format. Russia has been demanding the release of certain sanctions and was furious that Black Sea grain is feeding not only Africa and “poor” countries but also goes to “rich” Europe. Russia calculated each vessel trying to prove that grain should only go to the poorest nations. Of course, this is Russia&rsqu...
What You Need to Know Today: The June jobs report showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 57k jobs, less than the 115k jobs expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The labor force participation rate dropped by 0.3 percent to 61.5 percent, the lowest since March 2021, and the lowest in 50 ye...
As Cuba's economic crisis has deepened, discussions about the country's eventual economic and political transition have reemerged. One question that inevitably follows is what opportunities might emerge for U.S. agricultural exports. So, here’s a brief review of those opportunities, but n...
Key Takeaways Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is increasing steadily, despite a precarious political situation. The increased flow of vessels through the SOH is pressuring tanker rates, though total volumes remain well below pre-war levels. The big issue in the Strait of Hormu...
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.