Why plants watch these

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, but there is no clean dedicated futures — lean hogs are linked out for context only.

Wheat (flour direction)

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).

Open KC HRW wheat futures (KE1!) on TradingView

Corn (masa direction)

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).

Open corn futures (ZC1!) on TradingView

Soybean complex (oils / shortening)

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!.

Open soybean oil futures (ZL1!) on TradingView

Energy / freight (diesel context)

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.)

Open heating oil futures (HO1!) on TradingView

Natural gas (plant energy)

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!.

Open natural gas futures (NG1!) on TradingView

Lean hogs / lard Proxy

No dedicated lard futures, and free TradingView embeds block both CME lean hogs and London lean-hog ETCs. Chart uses AMEX:DBA (Invesco DB Agriculture) as a working U.S. ag/livestock basket proxy — direction context only beside soybean oil above.

Embedded: AMEX:DBA (ag basket with livestock exposure). True lean hog futures: HE1! (open in TradingView — not embeddable on free widgets). Not a cash lard quote.

Open lean hog futures (HE1!) on TradingView