Regional Updates MIDDLE EAST/MEDITERRANEAN COMMENTS Morocco has confirmed that it will lift the 135 percent duty on soft wheat imports as of 1 November 2018. The government had also been providing subsidies to those millers using local wheat. Morocco’s total wheat crop has reportedly reached 10.3 MMT (4.9 MMT of soft wheat, 2.4 MMT of durum and 2.9 MMT of hard wheat). Its current wheat reserves are said to total 4.3 months of consumption. Iraq’s ag minister has advised that the planted area for irrigated winter crops will be reduced by 55 percent due to a lack of water. National water reserves are reported to be down 27 percent. Iraq’s total wheat crop is expected to be 20 percent smaller, which should necessitate addit...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
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.