Last Friday the Department of Commerce released its initial gross domestic product (GDP) report for Q2 2018, which showed estimated growth of 4.1 percent. While that was the fastest quarterly increase since Q3 2014, it was also in line with pre-report expectations. Commerce indicated that net exports accounted for 1.06 percent of the gain, their greatest contribution since 2013. Given the media’s focus on China’s tariffs and the importance of soybean exports, the prevailing narrative in the news is that these were a major driver of this growth. However, there is a deeper story that shows the media accounts may be overselling the impact. According to news reports, the export pace was rushed to get shipments out before tariffs w...
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
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.