Now that USDA has reopened, its reports will resume. The next WASDE report on 8 February will likely include information that would have been contained in January’s cancelled issue. The National Ag Statistics Service and Economic Research Service will also soon be updating the schedule of its reports. Also of interest will be the latest releases of the FAS Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) reports. These are not considered official USDA data but represent estimates and analysis from FAS personnel at overseas posts. Of course, one of the most anticipated reports might be an update on the African swine fever (ASF) situation in China. There have been news stories of two new outbreaks of ASF in Gansu (northwest) and Jiangsu...
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.