The recent volatility in lean hog futures — from fresh contract highs at the end of January to the dramatic early-February selloff — has many in the industry (and WPI clients) wondering what will happen next. WPI’s latest analysis indicates that while pork demand remains strong, the market strength and sentiment that propelled futures to new contract highs earlier this year have matured, limiting the potential for additional gains through FH 2026. Supply-Side Factors Supplies of market-ready hogs have remained relatively steady since 2022, with the industry confident in its ability to meet domestic and export demand from a stable breeding herd. Hog inventories have trended slowly higher over the past four years...
Early Sunday evening, President Trump and Iranian officials confirmed the two countries have agreed to a peace deal. The agreement notes the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened (though President Trump cautioned time would be needed “for purposes of mine removal”) and the U.S. bl...
What You Need to Know Today: It was a quiet trading day across major agricultural commodities, with most contracts closing within 1 percent of the previous day's settlement. Trading volumes for corn and the soy complex were lighter than earlier in the week, as traders were positioning before a...
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.