Macroeconomic Trends China’s Economic Slowdown Hits Food and Agricultural Sectors After increases in the cost of food exceeded 3 percent during September and October, food inflation in China retreated to 2.5 percent for both November and December. According to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the cost of food rose 1.9 percent for all of 2018 compared with 2017, and the consumer price index climbed 2.1 percent. While lower food inflation would be a welcome sign for consumers in years when the economy is thriving, such a development in the fourth quarter of 2018 instead reflects an economy in contraction. With China’s central government announcing gross domestic product (GDP) growth of just 6.6 percent last...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.