Macroeconomics Food Prices See Biggest Jump in Nearly Two Years Not since September 2020 has the average cost of food in China risen by more than 3 percent on an annualized basis. That nearly changed this past June as food prices rose in aggregate by 2.9 percent from a year ago. That marked three straight months of increases as the combination of rising food and feedstuff costs worldwide coupled with Beijing’s drive to eliminate COVID-19 outbreaks through the use of stringent lockdown measures created quite the shock to consumer purchasing power. Leading the cost increase among the different food groupings were fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, eggs, milk, and cooking oils, which saw annualized upticks of 19 percent, 3.7 percent, 6.5 p...
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.