Back when the U.S. was the major supplier of wheat, corn and soybeans in the world market, currency relationships had only a marginal impact on the volumes of its grain exports. Times have changed.The U.S. dollar is the principal currency of world trade, the benchmark against which other currencies are measured. As everyone knows, it has also been on a roll. The U.S. Dollar Index measures its comparative strength against a basket of other major currencies. Since mid-2011, the index has gained about 34 percent, which is a huge move by foreign exchange standards. With most of that strength developed over the past 12 months, the index is up about 22 percent since August 2014. There are several factors behind this. Broadly speaking, the strong...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Consumer spending is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and the latest retail sales data indicate that spending remains robust despite inflation. In September, total retail and food service sales rose more than 6 percent year-over-year, with food service spending up 7 percent and...
The Trump import plan for 300,000 MT of beef supplies used for ground beef, i.e., lean trim, from September through November has, according to Secretary Brooke Rollins, brought some relief to beef prices. The Executive Order states that the Secretary of Agriculture will analyze and review the m...
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.