Direction charts for plant input costs — flour/masa feedstocks, oils and shortening, freight fuel, oven gas, and lard. Free TradingView embeds cannot show most CME futures contracts (licensing), so most cards use a liquid U.S. commodity ETF as an on-page chart, with an Open CME futures on TradingView link (new tab) for the actual contract. The Lard card uses the BLS producer price index via FRED. Not cash flour/masa quotes. Not investment advice.
Tortilla manufacturers live in the spread between finished-goods pricing and input costs. Soft-wheat and hard-wheat flour (and masa from corn) dominate the bill of materials; vegetable oils and shortening drive frying and bake-line costs; natural gas powers ovens and plant heat; diesel (ULSD) shows up in inbound ingredients and outbound freight. Lard and animal fat still matter for some formulations — the Lard card charts the BLS producer price index (FRED) rather than a futures proxy.
Hard-wheat flour pressure for wheat tortillas and wraps — chart uses the liquid WEAT ETF as an embeddable direction proxy.
Embedded: AMEX:WEAT (Teucrium Wheat). CME flour-relevant futures: KE1! / ZW1! (not available in free TradingView embeds).
Corn feedstock direction for nixtamal and dry-masa plants — chart uses the liquid CORN ETF as an embeddable proxy.
Embedded: AMEX:CORN (Teucrium Corn). CME corn futures: ZC1! (blocked in free TradingView site embeds).
Vegetable oil and shortening direction for frying and bake lines — chart uses SOYB (soybean complex). Soybean oil futures themselves are embed-blocked.
Embedded: AMEX:SOYB (Teucrium Soybean). CME soybean oil futures: ZL1!.
Freight and energy direction for inbound ingredients and outbound loads — chart uses UGA (gasoline ETF), closer to road fuel than crude. Heating oil / ULSD futures stay one click away.
Embedded: AMEX:UGA (gasoline ETF) as a road-fuel / freight direction proxy. CME heating oil / ULSD proxy futures: HO1!. (USO crude also works as AMEX:USO.)
Oven and plant heat costs — chart uses the liquid UNG ETF as an embeddable direction proxy.
Embedded: AMEX:UNG (US Natural Gas Fund). CME Henry Hub futures: NG1!.
BLS producer price index for lard, inedible tallow, and other greases (ex-wool grease) — useful for plants still running animal-fat formulations. Monthly index, not a cash spot quote or futures contract.
Chart: FRED PCU3116133116132 — last 5 years of the Producer Price Index by Industry: Rendering and Meat Byproduct Processing: Lard, Inedible Tallow, and Other Greases, Excluding Wool Grease (BLS; monthly, not seasonally adjusted). Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis / BLS. Click the chart for the interactive series.