The government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott was sworn into office just over two months ago on a pledge of economic liberalism (and social conservatism) for Australia. However, that commitment has already seen its first failure. Aiding Mercantilism Ghana is seeking to enact a fund to boost its exports. It plans to finance the effort by using some of the money it raises via a 17 percent average tariff on imports. While Ghana has a trade deficit in agriculture, it has shrunk to a narrow one as food imports have risen by 55 percent over the past five years with food exports having grown by 203 percent over the same period. USAID and other donors help the nation produce the staples (maize, rice and cassava) needed by its poor population, and...
What You Need to Know Today: Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans continued to accelerate, with USDA reporting another 558 KMT sold to China and 236 KMT to unknown destinations. Combined with sales announced Wednesday and Thursday, the latest purchases bring the three-day total to approximately...
Key Takeaways: With the fall calf run now upon us, producers are finally getting a glimpse of what their realized profits will be for 2026. Some producers may have already obtained a strong estimate of 2026 revenues, especially if calves were forward sold in, for example, the mid-summer...
As fall begins, wild migratory birds are starting their seasonal migration. That has the industry and government officials worried about the potential spread, again, of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Some members of Congress have called for the United States to be prepared for a pote...
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.