Early 2015 world wheat production estimates had been hovering near the record levels of the previous two years. Now a number of recent issues have pushed wheat prices sharply higher.Corn and soybeans seem to receive most of the market press and chatter, while the wheat market is an afterthought to most analysts. There are many reasons why. First and foremost, corn is corn and soybeans are soybeans. However, there are six distinctly different classes of wheat in the U.S. that have different grading factors and different end uses. In addition, there are non-grade elements that can have a profound effect on wheat values. These include protein, falling numbers, etc. There are also three wheat futures markets in the U.S. alone: Chicago (soft red...
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.