Argentina Stories are circulating that the Argentine government will increase the soybean export tax from 30 percent to 33 percent in the next few days. The tax increase is rumored to apply only to soybeans and will not include soymeal or soyoil. Argentine farmers are still concerned about the economic situation for the coming year and farm margins are expected to be very tight. The situation is worse for farmers further away from ports. The new tariffs for truck freight have been negotiated with an increase of 54 percent, nearly equal to the inflation rate. Given these new freight rates and FOB prices, internal transportation will account for 21 percent of the gross value of corn for farms in Cordoba and 32 percent in Salta (the mo...
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.