World Perspectives

Food is First Victim; Energy Confusion

Food is First Victim Food comprises just 6 percent of all U.S. exports, but it is the first to receive retaliation in trade disputes. The latest example is Israel’s war with Hamas, though it is American food brands that are taking it on the chin. KFC has had to close 100 outlets in Malaysia due to a consumer boycott over the war. Boycotts have also hit McDonalds and Starbucks in both Malaysia and Indonesia. Note that these retailers are typically owned and operated as franchises by locals, and Malaysia’s pension fund is a major investor in that country’s KFC. KFC and Pizza Hut sales are down across the Middle East. American exports of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aircraft and machinery parts, technology and energy are muc...

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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.

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