Argentina Headed Down the Proven Wrong Path on Agriculture Again It has been said that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet, that appears exactly what the new Peronist government in Argentina is doing to address the financial crisis the country once again faces. And it will be the agricultural sector that pays the price for that stupidity. Last weekend the government of President Alberto Fernandez announced it was immediately raising the export tax rates on wheat, corn, sunseed, barley and sorghum from 5.7 percent to 12 percent. The export tax rates for soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil were increased from 24.7 percent to 30 percent. This week the government indi...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets remain mixed with Capesize vessels seeing continued pressure from weaker demand while fixtures and rate strength gradually increases towards the smaller vessel classes. Tanker markets are pulling back from their recent highs as tonnage moves out of the Mid...
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...
Key Takeaways: Texas illustrates the assumptions underlying the 2025 FMMO reform; Idaho exposes their limitations. The Southwest order blend (roughly 27 percent Class I, 32 percent Class III and 31 percent Class IV) exposes Texas producers to every lever USDA adjusted, with a near-neutral proj...
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.