For the industry and services sectors, agriculture has always been a thorn when it comes to trade negotiations. That remains the case, but a heartening approach is being taken by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other ancillary organizations. Doomed from the Start At a meeting last week under the African Union, African leaders signed the Malabo Declaration, pledging at least 10 percent of their national budgets would be dedicated toward bolstering their agricultural systems. However, there are at least two reasons for skepticism: They made the same pledge more than a decade ago via the Maputo Declaration, and a majority of countries have not even come close to that target. The declaration pins its hope on the continent becoming not just...
What You Need to Know Today: Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans continued to accelerate, with USDA reporting another 558 KMT sold to China and 236 KMT to unknown destinations. Combined with sales announced Wednesday and Thursday, the latest purchases bring the three-day total to approximately...
Key Takeaways: With the fall calf run now upon us, producers are finally getting a glimpse of what their realized profits will be for 2026. Some producers may have already obtained a strong estimate of 2026 revenues, especially if calves were forward sold in, for example, the mid-summer...
As fall begins, wild migratory birds are starting their seasonal migration. That has the industry and government officials worried about the potential spread, again, of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Some members of Congress have called for the United States to be prepared for a pote...
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.