The International Sugar Trade Coalition (ISTC) recently weighed in on the Senate Agriculture Committee's farm bill with a letter to the Senate. According to ISTC, which represents sugar producers in 17 developing nations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central America and South America, the sugar policy in the Senate farm bill "provides a guaranteed level of access to the U.S. sugar market at fair, predictable prices." Amendments that weaken this policy "would not only harm U.S. farmers but also poor growers from developing countries where sugar is a key economic driver." Citing what happened when the EU altered its sugar policy, ISTC asserts that ending the U.S. sugar program would only reward a few large food companies and ag superpower...
Key Takeaways: President Trump announced $8 billion in additional agricultural assistance through the Harvest Fuel Relief Program, as USDA projects farm fuel and oil expenses will increase 28.8 percent in 2026. The package follows $12 billion in earlier relief, while government farm payments w...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
Beef packer margins deteriorated to $141/head last week, down $55 from the prior week as fed cattle prices strengthened while the Choice cutout remained nearly unchanged. The cutout held near $373/cwt while fed cattle prices climbed $4/cwt to $224/cwt, narrowing processor profits. Despite the d...
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.