Thursday, March 28, 2024

Wells Fargo treats Ag stakeholders

Posted

Wells Fargo Ag expert explains
markets to local stakeholders

By Gary Bégin
Wells Fargo Senior Vice President, Agriculture Economist Michael Swanson, has been traveling America explaining the ups and downs of the agriculture market and how it fits into today's modern world.
About 10 people attended his hour and a half mini-symposium sponsored by the bank in its downtown Wenatchee location in late October.
Most of the gathered were area tree fruit orchardists to which Swanson discussed the importance of balancing acreage and return on assets among other things.  
He posed questions such as, "Is adding acreage always the answer?" and
added in tidbits of relevant market changing information during his talk, such as how Asian Swine Flu in China might affect pig farmers in Iowa.
Swanson discussed the current era of ethanol as produced by corn farmers and how it has impacted corn market annual receipts.
He also explained how the ranch and farms markets are linked and how "fear and greed" causes potential swings in the value of the U.S. dollar viv-a-vis other currencies.
"The world is about systems," Swanson said.
In the case of the tree fruit industry here, Swanson noted the importance of price of product in regards to yield per acre, with older orchards yielding less product, but labor costs possibly remaining the same regardless.
"Everybody is connected from Chile to Ukraine," he surmised.
Swanson ended the talk by referring people to look up more information about the apple industry, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau, by Googling NAICS 111331.
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.

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