Indonesia’s palm oil stocks fell 8.2 percent to 1.8 MMT in June from 1.96 MMT at the end of May. That was the sixth straight month that they have declined, spurred by certain steps taken by the government. Large Sales of U.S. Soybeans Continue Exporters have had enormous success selling U.S. soybeans in the past few days. Since 1 August, sales totaling 2.4562 MMT have been reported with all but 66,000 MT of that for shipment in 2016/17. Sales to China totaled 1.689 MMT, and the remaining 767,200 MT were to unknown destinations. Most likely, a sizable share of the latter will also go to China. Undoubtedly, more sales that were under 100,000 MT will be included in this week’s USDA export sales report.Yesterday’s USDA export inspections repo...
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...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.