U.S.-Japan Prospects Donald Trump is reviled for his efforts at brinksmanship. He is called a fascist and a bully. The approach is fairly common but more deftly exercised using silk gloves. Thus, the EU’s Michel Barnier can successfully tell the Brits that it is the deal being offered or a hard Brexit and nothing in between. Fortunately, experts believe Tokyo and Washington have a mutual interest in attaining a trade agreement. President Trump needs a deal to successfully argue that he is helping American workers and achieving a more fair-trade balance. Prime Minister Abe needs a strong alliance with the U.S. due to the geopolitical risks surrounding his country. This indicates the likelihood that some progress will be made between t...
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.