One of the charges by populists in the agricultural sector is that consolidation has led to monopolistic conditions, or at least a monopsonist situation. Often cited as an example is the meat packing industry, though it has been investigated repeatedly. There are tools that enable better price hedging by producers, though they are used less than they should. USDA and the futures industry will attempt to remedy the problem with four outreach and training sessions at the end of this year focused on cattle contracts, factors impacting carcass quality and ultimately improving acceptance and premium pricing of steers. There is also the charge of monopoly when it comes to the input industry. However, no producer is forced to buy the latest...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
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.