Dave Juday pointed out in a recent analysis that the Midwest and the South have reaped the most in Market Facilitation Payments (MFP) not because of politics but because that is where the major crops are grown. Notably, a class of crops that nutritionists advise be consumed in greater numbers gets no MFP payments and instead relies on direct government purchases for food aid – vegetables. One can argue that these “specialty” crops are exported in much smaller proportions and consequently have not been as adversely impacted by the trade war. Moreover, growers of specialty crops have had the opportunity to garner greater government support but have chosen greater regulatory independence. Still, weighing changes in jus...
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: 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...