Yesterday USDA released its Food Price Outlook Report for September, which is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and these consumer prices, by and large, reflect the commodity markets.Yesterday USDA released its Food Price Outlook Report for September. This is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative market basket of goods and services; in this case, that would be food products. USDA is forecasting the all food CPI to be 0.5-1.5 percent in 2016 and 1.5-2.5 percent in 2017. That compares to a 20-year historical average of 2.6 percent and last year’s average of 1.9...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.