Without doubt, import safeguards, as practiced by many countries, are a frustration for the world's food exporters. Some of that frustration compelled USTR-Designee Michael Froman to concede to senators that he will look into a possible dispute settlement case against Russia for its ban on meat produced with internationally approved feed additives. One food segment that is particularly damaged by nefarious import restrictions is perishable products, since their value quickly declines before they can be redirected in the global market. Some WTO members are seeking near-term agreement on a mechanism that would limit restrictive import actions and allow products to be orderly marketed. However, their quest is highly in doubt because the active...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.