Macroeconomics COVID-19 Produces Largest Food Cost Increase in 18 Months It has taken a few weeks, but data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics have now appeared in the past week showing food prices rose in May by 2.3 percent. That compares to an annualized increase of 1.9 percent in April and marks the fastest price growth for key foodstuffs since September 2020. It is also only the second time in the past eighteen months that food prices have risen year-on-year in consecutive months. Leading the way in May were the costs of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, eggs, cooking oils, milk, and beef, which saw upticks of 19 percent, 11.6 percent, 10.6 percent, 3.8 percent, .9 percent, and 1 percent, respectively. Holding the ove...
Russian Grain Markets: 29 June-3 July 2026 The new marketing season has officially begun in Russia, although bearish sentiment has been concentrated in the southern regions closest to the Black Sea ports, where export demand has been weakest. Delays in grain deliveries to inland elevators have...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.