The most notable outcome of the meeting between the U.S. and Chinese presidents is the lack of fireworks. Meanwhile, business groups developed a wish list for the WTO, but an important element was absent. Xi-Trump Summit The most notable outcome of the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is the lack of fireworks. There were annoying reports ahead of the meeting such as a request by Xi for access to biotechnology even as his government continues to delay approval of U.S. products derived from it. Trump likely found that international negotiations involve an exchange of concessions rather than the unilateral wins by Washington. He wants Beijing to be tougher on Pyongyang, and Xi asked for less Americ...
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.