Macro Trends China’s Ag Imports Climb Nearly 13 Percent in 2017 With the conclusion of China’s Lunar New Year celebrations, its Ministry of Commerce has started to release year-end data. Farm-related products entering the country in 2017 were valued at $125.9 billion, up 12.8 percent from 2016 and 6.8 percent of the total value of all imports for the year. Among the leading subsectors, oilseed imports amounted to $43 billion or roughly one-third of the total value of all agricultural imports, a 16.2 percent increase from the previous year. By comparison, all Chinese imports were up 15.9 percent versus 2016. Livestock and livestock product imports were valued at $25.6 billion in 2017, a 9.5 percent improvement from 2016. Impor...
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
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.