Macro Trends U.S. Ag Exports to China Fall to Ten-Year Low The USDA-GATS October export data, which covers monthly figures through August 2018, underscores the deep impact of the U.S.-China trade conflict. It shows that just 345,300.4 MT of U.S. agricultural products were shipped to the Middle Kingdom in August, the lowest figure for that month since 2006 when the total was 337,201.2 MT. On a monthly basis, it was the worst since a paltry 287,242 MT were shipped in September 2006. The difference between 2006 and now, however, is the average price (USD/MT). With soybean exports to China falling to their lowest level for the month of August in three years, higher value commodities (e.g., wine, almonds, pork and other food products) are maki...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
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.