Many are calling for paradigm shifts in most societal functions and a lot of changes are already happening, but government will slow farming’s ability to react. Food Retail: Over half the money families spent on food was for meals prepared away from home. Amid stay at home orders, food delivery has turned from a money-losing proposition to a necessity. Grocery stores have gone from an after-thought to one of the few places people can go and risk catching the virus. Large gatherings of people such as conventions and sporting events may not return for a year, meaning less demand for everything from hot dogs to banquet-sized rib roasts. Sneeze guards will not be enough to save salad bars. Food retail may be the hardest hit by the crisis...
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.
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...