One thing which certainly has been sparked by the fire at the Tyson meatpacking plant in Kansas is the age old producer versus packer tensions among more populist producers. A social media campaign started last week in response to the market data since the 9 August fire. Packer margins shot up after the fire, driven by retailers booking purchases and driving up the price of boxed beef while the fed cattle market suffered from oversupply versus capacity to process them. Much of the effort is centered on a social media blitz using the hashtag #FairCattleMarkets. The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) is involved. The group has been at the forefront of efforts to end the Beef Checkoff in the past, as well as supporting the origi...
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: Dry bulk markets remain mixed with Capesize vessels seeing continued pressure from weaker demand while fixtures and rate strength gradually increases towards the smaller vessel classes. Tanker markets are pulling back from their recent highs as tonnage moves out of the Mid...
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
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.