Gutless politicians are an unsurprising feature, but are nonetheless disappointing. Their constituents often do not care why beef prices are high; they just want them lowered. And if there is no easy solution, then the politician’s goal is to deflect the criticism toward anyone else, whether it is true or not. Bloomberg has a good article highlighting the strong demand for beef at a time when the cattle herd is at its smallest in decades. The data-driven dissection of the beef value chain shows packers and stockers as the only money-losing waystations along the route. They will have the sympathies of health insurers who are similarly blamed for high health care costs despite data to the contrary. The media and even the industry itself...
What You Need to Know Today: The U.S. dollar continued to strengthen Thursday as persistent inflation reinforced expectations for additional Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. Higher Treasury yields have helped support the dollar, potentially reducing the competitiveness of U.S. agricultural...
In yesterday’s WASDE, USDA reduced its overall red meat and poultry production forecast for 2026 as declines in beef and broiler output more than offset increases in pork and turkey production. Fourth-quarter beef production was revised downward because of slower fed cattle marketings and...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk freight markets were stronger this week, but the rally was uneven and due to divergent dynamics across basins and vessel classes. Panamax markets were broadly higher, but Atlantic grain demand was primarily responsible while Asian activity was subdued. That trend...
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.