The sharp jump in world wheat prices on the back of wheat production losses in Russia, the EU, Australia and elsewhere along with the government’s $12 billion aid package for farmers harmed by retaliation against President Trump’s recent imposition of tariffs are the topics of the day for grain and soy futures markets. Yesterday Egypt bought 420,000 MT of Black Sea wheat at prices that were about $15.00/MT higher than what it paid earlier in July. That shows in stark fashion the impact of smaller wheat crops due to adverse weather in several key wheat-exporting countries. Euronext Paris September wheat futures closed at 200.50 euros, the highest level since 2015. The CME’s overnight trading featured an unusually heavy vol...
Key Takeaways: The U.S. herd is stabilizing, but growth remains modest. Total goat inventory rose 1 percent in 2026, while meat-goat numbers increased 2 percent, which is not enough to materially reduce import dependence. Domestic slaughter is rising from a low base. Commercial slaughter incre...
What You Need to Know: U.S. fertilizer production is highly concentrated, but concentration alone does not establish that producers are operating as a cartel. Imports introduce competition unevenly: they supply nearly all U.S. potash consumption but play much smaller roles in domestic ammonia...
Given yesterday’s headlines, today’s market action may not be what many expected. The dollar is little changed, crude oil is pulling back and stocks are trading higher. Crude may be the biggest piece of today’s reversal. Saudi Arabia is offering additional crude to Asian buyer...
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.