Futures markets provided by the InterContinental Exchange (ICE) and its affiliates are quite important for certain commodities. They lead the way in the so-called soft commodities, such as cotton, sugar, coffee, cocoa and frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ). ICE Canada operates the Winnipeg Grain Exchange with its successful canola futures contract. With the end to the CWB monopoly, it is attempting to launch new contracts for Canadian HRS and durum. ICE Europe is most notable for its Brent Crude Oil futures contract which is widely used as a benchmark for the physical world crude oil market. In addition, ICE operates a variety of currency and currency spread contracts, and it has its own clearing houses.The ICE has been seen by many...
Key Takeaways: President Trump announced $8 billion in additional agricultural assistance through the Harvest Fuel Relief Program, as USDA projects farm fuel and oil expenses will increase 28.8 percent in 2026. The package follows $12 billion in earlier relief, while government farm payments w...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
Beef packer margins deteriorated to $141/head last week, down $55 from the prior week as fed cattle prices strengthened while the Choice cutout remained nearly unchanged. The cutout held near $373/cwt while fed cattle prices climbed $4/cwt to $224/cwt, narrowing processor profits. Despite the d...
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.