China Proposing Tariffs on U.S. Beef China’s tariffs for U.S. pork products (see Ag Perspectives, 2 April 2018), which are in addition to existing duties, are probably one of its more strategic retaliatory strikes in the current trade dispute. Domestic hog and pork prices there are down more than one-third so far in 2018. As this situation has escalated, China lobbed a more psychological retaliation by adding beef to a proposed tariff list along with soybeans, the top overall U.S. export to that country. Of course, beef shipments to China are not large; the market was just reopened in June 2017. In addition, the Chinese traceability requirement of U.S. beef is still a practical hurdle. However, according to the U.S. Meat Export Fede...
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.
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said the U.S. and Iran could “today or tomorrow” reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the Secretary’s claims, an attack on a vessel off the Omani coast suggests plenty of risk remains in forming a lo...
Beef packer margins slipped modestly for the first time in four weeks, declining $15/head to -$78 as fed cattle prices firmed while boxed beef values continued to weaken. The Choice cutout eased another $2.63/cwt to $364.69, while dressed cattle prices fell only $2.76/cwt to $362.25/cwt, limiti...
Key Takeaways: Offal represents an important segment of global meat trade by adding value to underutilized portions of livestock carcasses and improving overall resource efficiency. Strong export demand for products such as pork variety meats and chicken feet allows processors to maximize carc...