Exports have accounted for 25 percent of U.S. farm income, but that share will continue to fall. While China has taken about 25 percent of U.S. agricultural exports, the trade war is about to intensify. This will mean both further near-term losses but also a long-term erosion. Sales to Europe have been declining, and Japan will buy more from Australia and New Zealand due to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The OECD issued a silly report that American consumers will be worst hit due to the trade conflict with China. Duh. That is the whole point of it – the U.S. has lower importer barriers and consumes more from China. The real question is, what should be the revised direction of U.S. industries such as agriculture? Technology has...
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.