Joel Naroff is the President and founder of Naroff Economics LLC, a strategic economic consulting firm. Naroff’s day to day includes advising companies about the risks and opportunities that economic developments have on their operating environment. He is a renowned author and award winner in economic forecasting. We asked Joel about the upcoming 2022 Urner Barry Executive Conference, along with the topics and issues he will be covering during his session on the Global Market Outlook.

You are going to be joining us for the Global Market Outlook session at the Executive Conference. What are the main factors in the global market that you are going to tackle in your conversation?

Before we tackle the global market, I will start with a discussion on where the U.S. economy is going, including overall growth, inflation and interest rates. The U.S. economy was already slowing before Russia invaded Ukraine; the issue we are currently facing is how much further will it fall? There will be a focus on not just the United States’ economic fundamentals, but also the outlook of our major trading partners as well. I will also discuss the short and long-term impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on world growth, including the effects on food costs, especially grains and proteins.

Obviously, the issue of inflation is one that is on everybody's mind in the industry. How do you plan on addressing this in your conversation and what impact do you expect it to have on the economy?

Inflation is having significant impacts on not just household spending, pricing decisions and consumer confidence, but also on the Federal Reserve’s decision making. I will discuss where inflation is likely going and how spending and interest rates may move if inflation takes the course that most economists expect.

We’re at a strange place in regards to the pandemic, where new variants are throwing wrenches in companies long term plans to recovery. How do you see the global effect of this panning out in the upcoming year?

I currently assume (or hope) the pandemic will morph into an endemic by the end of this year – if not sooner. It will likely not disappear, but it should be contained. That said, it is hard to know what the next variant will look like, so alternative scenarios will be discussed during my presentation.

One global market issue that is getting brought up a lot recently is the war between Russia and Ukraine. How do you see this affecting the global market, specifically in the protein industry?

I will discuss the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There looks to be a long-term impact on European and U.S. usage of Russian energy products and it is unclear what will happen to grain prices given that Ukraine is a massive grain exporter.

This isn’t your first time speaking at the Executive Conference with Urner Barry. To you, what about the conference makes it a must attend for leaders in the protein market?

To me, the greatest thing about the conference is the agenda targets the critical issues facing the industry. There is a focus on both short and long-term concerns. The conference tackles these big picture issues, but with specific information about how to approach them.

Outside of the Global Market Outlook session you are speaking on, are there any other sessions from the event that you are curious to check out?

The tangled supply chains overhang all sectors of the economy, so the session on solving the supply chain and transportation issues is the one that interests me the most. I also spend a lot of time talking about labor shortages, so I am interested in seeing what is proposed in that session.

Hear from Joel Naroff and more at Urner Barry's Executive Conference, May 1-3, 2022 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. To learn more and to reserve your spot, visit the event page HERE.