Three's Company for Corn, Eggs and Beef

Last chance folks to register for the Datum FS Advisors Food Supply Chain Monthly Best Practices Webinar for Thursday February 22 at 11 AM ET. Presenters include Scott Schmitz , Thomas Healey , Keith Anderkin , and Charlie Lousignont as they dive into the pressing issues in today's chain including; tight distribution capacity, cost management, supply chain for emerging brands, and suppliers entrance into distribution and restaurant chains. Click here to learn more and register.

The commodity markets channeled their inner John Ritter ( I know...dating myself) last week with three being the magic number. Spot corn prices fell into the $3's for the first time in three (there's that number again) years despite the USDA and CONAB (think USDA in Brazil) lowering their South American corn crop estimates earlier this month. Beef 90 trim rose above $3 lb for the first time in several weeks as did table eggs.

Regarding eggs, avian flu has been an issue for table egg layers and pullets in recent months accounting for ~5 percent of the monthly laying hens. This is likely to underpin egg prices in at least the near term. The good news is that so far in 2024, avian flu cases impacting table egg hens has declined rather sharply from the fall and remain well below the peaks we saw in 2022.

Our featured Datum Advisor this week is Andrew Raabe who has diverse background in the foodservice industry from supply chain executive to CFO with Potbelly Sandwich Works and Wow Bao . Andy stands ready with the rest of our team to help power emerging foodservice brands including diversification into retail and off-premise. To learn more please visit DatumFS.com or direct message me. Thanks for reading.