The war in Iran is impacting not only crude oil prices but also fertilizer prices. It is a supply issue, and thus the Treasury Department has announced new waivers for Venezuela to provide price relief and reduce the threat of shortages. It is not clear, however, whether this will be enough to address prices before spring planting season. On Friday, the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it will ease restrictions on U.S. entities purchasing petrochemical products from Venezuela, including fertilizers and precursors to fertilizers. The announcement did not mention volumes of the planned imports. The authorizations expand the permitted investment and activities in Venezuela’s energy sector and allow for the...
What You Need to Know Today: Grain markets were sharply higher overnight and through the day session as the concerning wet weather pattern persists over the Midwest. Grain traders – and soybean market players in particular – will be closely parsing both what is said and unsaid from...
Key Takeaways: Higher interest rates increase the cost of financing agricultural production, reducing farm margins without providing any corresponding increase in production or revenue. The financial impact of higher rates varies considerably by operation, with highly leveraged producers and t...
Last week, the Senate Ag Committee passed the farm bill on a party-line vote upon the return of Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), who missed the vote on 6 August (see WPI coverage here) when it failed by a similar party-line vote, 10-11. Democrats held the...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.