U.S. tax reform has caused fissures within fissures, and the House leadership’s border adjustment tax (BAT) is notably front and center with the effect on agricultural exports part of the dispute. Taxicology U.S. tax reform has caused fissures within fissures, and the House leadership’s border adjustment tax (BAT) is notably front and center. Formally named the Destination-Based Cash Flow Tax, some in agriculture are worried that the BAT is not only WTO illegal but will cause a rise in the U.S. dollar’s value, hurting exports. The Trump administration’s Steven Mnuchin made no bones about his opposition, claiming it will hurt consumers, affect different companies differently and have currency impacts. However, the disputed part is its impa...
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.