The state of agriculture in Argentina and the loss of export competitiveness become clearer when examined through recent data. The official inflation rate for December 2024 was reported at 2.7 percent, resulting in an accumulated inflation rate of 117.8 percent for 2024. During this period, the exchange rate for grain trading rose from approximately AR$808/USD to AR$1,032/USD, marking a 27 percent increase. Commodity prices have shifted significantly. Soybeans increased in Argentine pesos from AR$265,000 ($327/MT) to AR$285,000 ($276/MT), representing a 7.5 percent increase in local currency. Wheat rose from AR$185,000 to AR$199,000, another 7.5 percent increase, while corn prices climbed by 26 percent. These increases contrast sharply with...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...
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.