Corn was pulled higher by the strength of soybeans. However, wheat markets shrugged off lower winter wheat crop ratings and prospects for more rain to close lower due to the dearth of export demand. General Comments As expected, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered food companies to phase out all use of artificial trans fats in food products over a three-year period. In 2013, the agency made a preliminary determination that they were no longer safe. Today's announcement confirmed that trans fats contained in partially hydrogenated edible oils were not "generally recognized as safe" in human foods. Trans fats have been linked to heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Food manufacturers have already removed them from most produc...
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.