Macroeconomics COVID-19 Produces Largest Food Cost Increase in 18 Months It has taken a few weeks, but data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics have now appeared in the past week showing food prices rose in May by 2.3 percent. That compares to an annualized increase of 1.9 percent in April and marks the fastest price growth for key foodstuffs since September 2020. It is also only the second time in the past eighteen months that food prices have risen year-on-year in consecutive months. Leading the way in May were the costs of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, eggs, cooking oils, milk, and beef, which saw upticks of 19 percent, 11.6 percent, 10.6 percent, 3.8 percent, .9 percent, and 1 percent, respectively. Holding the ove...
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
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.