In The News This Month – August 2022
Editorial
August seemed to have flown by, taking the carefree days of summer but leaving the extreme heat in its wake. Many parts of the US are experiencing a heat wave and living in Southern California, I’ve seen one too many 100 degrees plus days. I think many of us are looking forward to the Fall weather, especially if it brings much needed rain this season.
The end of August usually means back-to-school season, which in many households means stressing over quick breakfast and lunch ideas. This year that stress might include financial woes as well. More and more consumers are looking for sales, cutting coupons, switching to generics, and even cutting out nonessentials as prices at the grocery store continue to rise. According to a recent article featured on FeedStuffs.com, budget conscious consumers have become more concerned with finding ways to keep their grocery bills from rising.
Much to my children’s disappointment, my household has made some changes when it comes to food spending. Throughout the pandemic, we relied heavily (probably too heavily) on services like DoorDash. This is one non-essential service we have opted to stop using. It looks as though consumers like me are not the only one’s parting ways with DoorDash. Walmart is ending their delivery partnership with DoorDash, effective September 1st. Walmart is focused on building its own third-party delivery service, plus news of complaints from the DoorDash service at Walmart have been heard for a while now.
One of the most popular types of food we often ordered this past summer was cheeseburgers and fries. In an effort to make things healthier, we sometimes grilled veggie burgers. But are we really being healthier by switching to veggie burgers? A recent study by the FDA revealed that veggie burgers contain quite a lot of sodium. In comparison, the content of a hard-boiled egg is approximately 25% of a veggie burger. It seems that we should either serve some eggs for dinner or stick to a typical beef burger.
Not a fan of the popular beef burger? If you are more of a chicken person, like me, you might be thrilled to know that McDonald’s is testing out a new chicken Big Mac. The McDonald’s Chicken Big Mac actually gained unprecedented popularity in the UK and will soon make its way to the US. It will only be available in select test markets, starting in Florida. The basic ingredients are the same as the traditional Big Mac, minus the onions. I think many of us might be curious enough to give this one a try.
August news centered around the continued high prices at the grocery store, some new food introductions, including peanut skins in poultry feed and insect-based protein dog food. And, though we continued to see the spread of Avian Influenza, there was some positive news in August; it seems the topic of Avian flu vaccination is becoming a little less taboo. We are also seeing some great news coming out of the Feed and Grain industry. It looks like there has been some initial success in the newly opened crop export corridor and Ukrainian grain is again flowing. Although exports are still far below a normal pace, it is encouraging to see grains exported after the deal reached last month. It’s also amazing to see that despite the hostilities in the region, 91% of Ukraine’s harvest is complete. Farmers are resilient and they will continue to feed the world no matter the circumstances.
Monica Lizar
Account Manager
Aeros, a Cultura Company
Feed and Grains:
Grain prices shift higher
General export optimism and lingering concerns over production potential kept grain prices firm on Monday. Soybeans turned in the best performance, rising 2.5% after the ensuing round of technical buying. Corn prices trended another 1% higher, posting gains for the fourth consecutive session. Wheat gains were variable, coming in between 1.25% and 2.25% today.
Very little rain is expected to fall on the central U.S. later this week, although the upper Midwest will receive small to moderate amounts between Tuesday and Friday, per the latest 72-hour cumulative precipitation map from NOAA. The agency’s new 8-to-14-day outlook predicts seasonally hot, dry weather returning to the Northern Plains and upper Midwest between August 29 and September 4.
Read full article here
Ukrainian Exports Up, Harvest 91% Complete
Ukrainian grain is again flowing, pushing down global prices as the newly opened crop-export corridor shows some initial success, reports Bloomberg.
More than 500,000 tons of foodstuffs aboard 25 ships were exported from the country’s major Black Sea ports in the first half of August, under a deal agreed late last month. That’s far below a normal pace, but is providing some relief to grain supplies strained by Russia’s invasion and bad weather curbing harvests elsewhere.
Ukraine’s 2022 wheat harvest is 91% complete at 17.4 million tonnes despite hostilities in eastern and southern regions, grain traders union UGA told Reuters on Friday.
The union’s statement said farmers had harvested a total of 25.7 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds so far.
Read full article here
Drought Sacks Corn in South Dakota, Ohio Crop Doesn’t Look Great, Either
“If guys are driving down the road and think they’re going to have 150-bushel corn crop here, they need to take the 1 off,” says Flory, quoting a farmer he talked with last week.
“I thought he was exaggerating the situation, but now that I’ve seen it, he’s not. This corn has experienced a lot of bad days,” adds Flory, host of AgriTalk and leader of the western leg of the tour, which will go through parts of South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa before finishing up in Minnesota.
Flory had just completed his fourth stop for the morning when he talked to Davis Michaelsen, AgriTalk guest host, and provided the less than stellar crop overview for South Dakota.
Read full article here
Eggs:
Veggie burgers have nearly four times the sodium of eggs
Veggie burgers have become a staple in many vegan diets; however, you may want to look for an alternative option if you are concerned about your sodium intake.
The sodium content of a hard-boiled egg is approximately 25% of a veggie burger, according to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) most recent Total Diet Study (TDS) published on July 15, 2022. Specifically, the TDS report found hard-boiled eggs to have 1332 ppm of sodium on average and veggie burgers to have 5467 ppm.
The report summarizes the analytical results collected by the FDA from retail outlets during the fiscal years 2018 – 2020. The results are determined by measuring concentrations of various nutrients and contaminants in the collected food samples. Over the time frame, the FDA performed 87 food collections, which resulted in 3241 samples of 305 foods.
Read full article here
Egg Week
USDA Weekly Egg Price and Inventory Report, August 24th, 2022
Market Overview
The average wholesale unit revenue for Midwest Extra-large and Large sizes was marginally lower by 1.0 cents per dozen or 0.8 percent on average from the past week continuing the decline from unprecedented high prices. Mediums were up by 3.2 percent reversing the downward trajectory although supply will increase as many pullet flocks enter production. Retail sales are projected to be relatively higher over the short-term given lower stock levels and the approaching Labor Day weekend. Prices and demand will continue higher than in previous years sustained by consumer perceptions of value in an inflationary environment. Availability and hence prices are influenced by previous depletion of more than 31.1 million hens in 13 large complexes in nine states extending from the last week in February through the first week in June.
Read full article here
Poultry:
McDonald’s to test Chicken Big Mac in the US
If you have ever wanted a chicken version of the classic McDonald’s Big Mac, now might be your chance.
After gaining unprecedented popularity in the U.K., the McDonald’s Chicken Big Mac could be making its debut in the U.S.
The sandwich – which includes the same ingredients as the traditional Big Mac without the onions – will be tested at select restaurants in Miami, Florida later this month. This, however, does not guarantee that there will be a national launch yet.
“While not everything we test makes it on our U.S. menus, we’ll use this time to gather feedback from both customers and restaurant crew as we consider opportunities to offer more delicious options in the future,” McDonald’s told the Washington Post. “We’re always looking to give our fans more ways to enjoy the classic menu items they know and love.”
Read full article here
Let them eat peanut skins! New ingredient on poultry menu
Being a fan of peanuts, a press release detailing research into using peanut skins in poultry feed caught my eye recently.
Work at the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Agency (ARS) Food Science and Market Quality and Handling Research Unit is looking at whether peanut skins can be safely and successfully incorporated into poultry diets.
Is it worth looking at something so small and insubstantial? It is if you consider how many skins are stripped from peanuts in the U.S. each year.
Some 40-70 million pounds of skins are stripped each year as the nut is prepared for inclusion in food or for oil extraction. If that’s hard to visualize, it is, according to search engine The Measure of Things, roughly equivalent to 30 blue whales!
The wafer-thin skins are full of protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber and vitamins and minerals. They also contain antioxidants, some at levels equal to those in green tea, widely thought to be one of the best sources of these beneficial compounds.
Read full article here
The “chicken or pasta” era may be flying away
I am starting to sound like an old man, but traveling is not what it used to be. I am not talking about 50 years ago but rather only five years ago.
Those times when traveling in coach was good enough, are gone. On many flights, we probably will never hear the food cart coming through the aisles and the voice asking – chicken or pasta?
Chicken or pasta – what magic words! Those dishes always came with bread, salad, cheese and dessert. I remember that you could even get wine and drinks. Well, chicken or pasta is no more.
I also remember that many years ago, even on short early morning flights, we used to get a full Mexican-style breakfast, that is, eggs, beans, bread, juice and fruit. Well, eggs for inflight breakfast are no longer.
While talking to a friend the other day, he said that even on long flights like traveling to Canada, which can take over five hours from Mexico City, no food was served. He took with him egg sandwiches for breakfast. On a flight to Colombia traveling in business class, he just got a finger sandwich to nibble on with a glass of juice for a four-hour international flight.
Read full article here
Turkey:
Avian flu vaccination becoming less of a taboo topic
Turkey producers, especially, seem more open to the idea of vaccinating flocks for avian influenza
Vaccinating poultry for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is still not a practice done in the United States, but it is an idea that appears to be finding less opposition than before.
Since so many countries won’t accept poultry imports from regions where avian influenza vaccination has been done, there has traditionally been opposition to vaccination programs.
But as the HPAI outbreak has been so widespread in the United States in 2022, some in the poultry industry, and more specifically in the turkey industry, are rethinking that opposition, said Dr. Sara McReynolds, Kansas deputy animal health commissioner.
McReynolds was a featured speaker during the Kansas Ag Summit, held August 18 in Manhattan.
Kansas only had one commercial flock affected by HPAI in 2022, and that was a commercial turkey breeding flock. The turkey industry, as a whole, has been hit harder by HPAI than the broiler industry, both in the present and in past outbreaks, so McReynolds said there is some open mindedness among turkey producers about vaccinations
Read full article here
Lucky to eat a Buc-ee’s turkey sandwich
I had seen those circles with a beaver wearing a baseball cap for quite some time, but never really knew what it meant. It wasn’t a sports mascot or a known cartoon character – I knew that much – but it obviously represented something that meant something to people.
But my wife at least knew that beaver was Buc-ee, and he was a store mascot.
Recently on a family vacation, we started to see signs that showed that famous beaver. And when approaching Denton, Texas, we were ready for a break from the road, so we pulled over.
We approached a packed parking lot, and there was practically an uncountable amount of gas pumps.
This was no ordinary truck stop/gas station/convenience store. I had always thought Love’s and Casey’s had mastered the whole marketing thing for this type of business, but no. Nothing comes close to Buc-ee’s in this category.
Read full article here
Pork:
Two more pork plants approved for NSIS time-limited trial
Two additional pork processing plants have been granted USDA approval this summer to participate in the New Swine Inspection System “time-limited trial,” which will enable establishments to experiment with different ergonomics, automation and crewing to develop work environments that ensure both food and worker safety while increasing productivity.
During the trial, Swift Pork Company in Beardstown, Illinois and Tyson Fresh Meats in Madison, Nebraska will be permitted to operate at an increased line speed for a period of up to one year during which time they will collect data that measures the impact of line speed on workers.
Read full article here
Massachusetts delays implementing pork production rule
Judge Mark Wolf, a United States federal court judge for the District of Massachusetts, signed an agreement August 11 approving the delay of enforcement of a state law that would have banned the sale of pork that comes from animals not housed according to the state’s prescriptive housing standards. This agreement is limited to the pork sales provisions and does not apply to either the egg or veal provisions in Q3.
A coalition led by the National Pork Producers Council, with the National Restaurant Association and several New England restaurant and hospitality associations, filed suit seeking to stop the law’s impeding implementation. The suit also asks the court to find the law unconstitutional.
The state law, known as Question 3 (Q3), was a 2016 Massachusetts ballot initiative set to go into effect on Aug. 15, 2022. Q3 is similar to California’s Proposition 12, which is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Q3 would ban any uncooked whole pork meat sold in the state that does not meet specific sow housing requirements, regardless of where it was produced.
Read full article here
Beef:
Cattle prices resilient as feedlots defy gravity again
Aided and abetted by the drought, feedlots put together another month of large placements in July, according to Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel.
USDA’s July “Cattle on Feed” report showed placements were 101.8% of last year, despite growing indications that feeder supplies are declining. July 1 estimated feeder supplies outside of feedlots were down 2.7% year over year.
“Drought continues to force cattle to market sooner than planned,” Peel noted. “Oklahoma auction volumes of feeder cattle for the past six weeks are up 10.9%, consistent with the unexpectedly large placements in July.”
July feedlot placements included a 2.5% decrease in feeders weighing over 700 pounds, which was more than offset by a 9.5% increase in feeders weighting less than 700 pounds. Peel noted that this is the third month in a row with increased placements of lightweight feeders and decreased placement of heavy feeders.
Read full article here
Meat department performs as alternatives falter
Meat continues to be one of the strongest departments in stores despite inflationary pressures, according to Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics LLC. However, seafood and meat alternatives remain severely down.
The July edition of market research company IRI’s monthly survey of primary shoppers found the average price per pound in the meat department across all cuts and kinds, both fixed and random weight, stood at $4.56 in July 2022, up two cents from the June level but up 7.0% versus year ago.
Read full article here
Dairy:
U.S., Mexico dairy leaders chart path forward
Leading dairy representatives from the United States and Mexico gathered at Dairy Farmers of America headquarters in Kansas City this week to discuss strengthening cross-border cooperation on dairy issues. The U.S. Dairy Export Council and the National Milk Producers Federation served as the U.S. hosts and event organizers.
Mexico’s delegation at the meeting included representatives from the Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas (CNOG), Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Leche (AMLAC), Gremio de Productores Lecheros de Mexico, Cámara Nacional de Industriales de la Leche (CANILEC), and Consejo Nacional Agropecuario (CNA).
Mexico’s dairy together production sector is comprised of approximately 250,000 dairies, the majority of which are micro and small operations with less than 100 dairy cow s each. According to an October 2021 report from USDA, the Mexican dairy industry estimates it will be able to satisfy national demand with approximately 85% domestic milk and 15% imported milk. Fluid milk imports mostly reach Mexico’s northeast states and the U.S.–Mexico border region due to logistics and freight costs.
Read full article here
DeLaval launches next-generation E-series rotary milking system
DeLaval, a global leader in dairy innovation, has launched its cutting-edge E-series rotary milking system for North American dairy producers. The integrated system increases milking efficiency, streamlines worker routines, automates the selecting and sorting of cows, and minimizes stress on dairy cattle.
“The DeLaval E-series rotaries represent a new era in efficient dairy technology,” said Pat Wiltzius, milking systems development manager at DeLaval. “We have taken a 360-degree view of our customers’ needs, prioritizing animal welfare, farm profitability, food safety and work efficiency.”
Read full article here
Miscellaneous:
Insect-based protein dog food and treats
Jiminy’s, the leading producer of insect-based protein dog food and treats, is thrilled to announce the company has made Inc. Magazine’s annual 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, ranking at number 289! This achievement comes as the brand continues to expand its product line of environmentally friendly products. Jiminy’s will be showcasing these new innovations at this year’s SuperZoo Tradeshow in Las Vegas from August 23-25 2022.
“It’s an honor to make our debut on Inc.’s annual list of the 5000 Fastest Growing Companies at number 289,” says founder & CEO Anne Carlson. “Recognition for outstanding growth (across industries!) from Inc. gives us great momentum going into our biggest SuperZoo yet.” Carlson went on to say, “At Jiminy’s, we are dedicated to improving the health of our pets and the planet. With the addition of our Cravin’ Cricket and Good Grub Entrées, Jiminy’s now offers even more alternative protein food options for dogs and pet parents.”
Read full article here
Walmart and DoorDash end their delivery partnership
DoorDash said last week it is ending its four-year delivery partnership with Walmart. The partners have said the split comes as Walmart continues to focus on being its own third-party delivery service and DoorDash chooses to focus on its long-term customer relationships.
“We’d like to thank Walmart for their partnership and are looking forward to continuing to build and provide support for merchants in the years ahead with our leading Marketplace and Platform offerings,” a spokesperson from DoorDash said Friday.
The partnership will end this month and the services will be terminated effective Sept. 1.
“As for our agreement to part ways with DoorDash, we’d like to thank DoorDash for their partnership and support of our customers the past several years,” a Walmart spokesman told Talk Business & Politics in an email.
The partnership was not always a bed of roses and the partnership dissolution did not surprise industry watchers. In August 2021, DoorDash surveyed more than 1 million of its independent drivers asking them to share their experiences about deliveries from Walmart. DoorDash reported the biggest complaints about picking up orders at Walmart was the wait time and low tipping.
Read full article here
Consumers hitting their limits with higher food prices
For most Americans, higher prices at the grocery store did not impact their Fourth of July cookout, but more consumers are looking for sales and switching to generics, according to the latest Consumer Food Insights Report.
The survey-based report out of Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability assesses food security and spending, consumer satisfaction and values, support of agricultural and food policies and trust in information sources.
Compared to five months ago, more Americans are making changes in response to higher food prices. The largest share of consumers, 28%, now reports seeking out more sales and discounts, and more people are switching to generic, using coupons, cutting out nonessentials and shopping at cheaper stores.
“Shopping discounts and generics is a clear sign of budget consciousness among consumers,” said Jayson Lusk, the head and Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue who leads the center. “After increasing for several months in the first half of the year, food expenditures are now remaining relatively consistent. This indicates consumers have become more concerned with finding ways to keep their grocery bills from rising any higher.”
Read full article here
The information in this newsletter is intended to update our readers of current events. Any third-party publications are presented for informational purposes only and the views presented in such publications are those of the respective authors. The views therein are not necessarily representative of Aeros or any other CULTURA company’s views on any particular topic.