The Thanksgiving holiday is coming up in about six weeks. It is a major driver of retail food shopping, with turkey as the key driver of proteins. Looking back at the past two years, the holiday was impacted in 2020 by COVID-19 which resulted in less travel and smaller Thanksgiving dinners. Those smaller gatherings were helpful to other proteins as consumers opted for less traditional turkey dinners in lieu of beef and pork cuts. Demand rebounded in 2021, and when coupled with production and supply chain problems for turkey, retail prices were up about 24 percent over 2020. Currently, wholesale prices of whole frozen turkeys are up about 32 percent over the same week in 2021. Prices for frozen Grade A 8-16 pound hens are $1.67 to $1...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.