The prospects for a WTO agreement on further capping domestic agricultural supports at this December’s ministerial meeting are quite slim. Meanwhile, the push by U.S. farm groups to alter farm programs here could have unintended consequences. Energy Policy Fallout China’s cabinet says it will speed up the use of the nation’s surplus aging grains by converting them into larger volumes of ethanol. It will also boost subsidies for building storage and drying facilities. The increased fuel supply comes at the same time Industry Vice Minister Xin Guobin is quoted in the state-run Xinhua news service saying that China may join other nations in banning combustion engine cars. France, the UK and Ireland have announced future deadlines for ending...
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.