Trade War Adjustments Back in 1973, the U.S. imposed a soybean export embargo and then export licensing requirements due to short supply concerns. The result was the birth of the Brazilian soybean industry as Japan sought to diversify its suppliers and began investments in South America. Now many countries are adjusting to the trade fight between the U.S. and major soybean buyer. Some of South Africa’s corn area may switch to soybeans, and Ukraine hopes to supply China with corn as a substitute for soymeal. Meanwhile, China is incentivizing its farmers to plant soybeans instead of corn. Regarding American farmers, President Trump has promised, “We’re not going to allow them to be casualties if this trade dispute escalate...
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.