Each month we post an overview article that covers our recent company articles, announcements, and insights. Below is for the month of March.
Food Cost Inflation: Impacts from Producers to Processors to Consumers
To understand the food and agribusiness sector and the inflationary challenges being felt, it is important to know certain problems and challenges being faced throughout the supply chain from producer to consumer, whether the consumer is eating at home or eating out.
The February CPI for food was 7.9% and the February PPI for food was 13.7%. These inflationary pressures are impacting producers, processors, and consumers, and they are being driven by a wide variety of factors.
The February CPI was 7.0%, with food at 7.9%. Food at home increased 8.6% and food away from home increased 6.8%. In addition, to energy cost increases, consumers are feeling direct impacts to food costs. The lesser increase in the cost of food away from home may indicate the restaurant business and other sectors that provide food for away from home consumption, may be experiencing tightening margins while operating in industries that already have tight gross margin performance.
Read the full article below!
Crop Lines of Credit: Stresses in 2022?
The first quarter of each calendar year is a time when agricultural producers and their lenders evaluate the crop lines of credit to confirm adequacy of amounts and structures, and to evaluate the leverage position of each producer.
While commodity prices for grains and fertilizers both increased in 2021, until the Russia / Ukraine conflict the changes were less dramatic and uncertain that they are today in 2022.
Now with the fluctuations in grain and other commodity prices and fear of availability of needed agricultural inputs, producers and lenders are uncomfortable with line of credit structures and worried about the adequacy of commitments.
Why is the Russia / Ukraine conflict problematic for US producers?
Read the full article below!
Fuel Prices and Transportation Costs are Surging: What Should Businesses Expect?
⛽⛽⛽ Fuel price increases have been huge. How can a business evaluate the amount of impact trucking costs will have on performance?
This article examines the impact of trucking costs on the financial performance of a business.