President Trump Orders Meat Processing Plants to Stay Open
- Meat companies have halted operations at about 20 slaughterhouses and processing plants across the US.
- Closures threaten the functioning of the meat and poultry supply chain.
- The order is designed in part to give companies legal cover with more liability protection in case employees are infected with coronavirus.
- Processors slaughtered an estimated 283,000 hogs on Tuesday, down about 43% from pre-closure levels.
- Tuesday’s estimated slaughter of 76,000 cattle was down about 38% from recent average daily numbers.
FBN’s Take On What It Means: We will see what this order means for the continued operation of meat-processing plants. Pushback from unions will likely be strong. Producers have already started to cull herds/flocks backed up by closures, impacting short-term feed demand. But, FBN remains confident that no long-term disruptions are present.
Brazil Soybean Exports Hit Record High
- Shipments so far this month are 12.4 million tonnes, already above the previous April monthly record set two years ago at 11.8 million tonnes.
- Shipments to China will be above 10 million tonnes for a second month.
- The export lineup is currently sitting at 11.2 million tonnes vs 12 million last week and 5.7 million a year ago.
- April exports could reach 14.5 million tonnes, which would be a new all time export record for any month.
FBN’s Take On What It Means: Cheap prices from ample bean movement due to the historically weak Brazilian real have encouraged end user buying. The record export program out of Brazil is keeping demand for US soybeans limited, which could continue for up to another three months before supplies are depleted enough that demand shifts back to the US.
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