U.S. ag exports have benefited from strong global demand and also dovish monetary policy at home. The latter is about to change, though, and could impact the former.MY 2016/17 has seen a major increase in U.S. ag exports with the volumes for almost all commodities rising by double-digit percentages after a few slump years.In terms of value, exports of U.S. ag commodities are likely to reach their third-highest level this year (following 2013 and 2014, respectively).Low commodity prices are one reason for this with the volume more than offsetting per-bushel or per-pound values. However, another is the global economic growth that has been strong among the economies of major trading partners. That has also been a factor in the U.S. dollar fall...
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...
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.