Food self-sufficiency is China’s policy goal but Anna Czenthe with the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies points out why the facts on the ground make it an impossibility. China has built up large strategic reserves, including half the world’s wheat and two-thirds of the corn, for a reason. It is one of the most water scarce countries in the world and this year drought is shrinking the water supply even further. She notes that future food demand will require an additional 3-12 million hectares of farmland that China does not possess. Replacing imports would cause “resource depletion and massive losses in welfare and quality of life.” She correctly notes that China will remain highly...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
In agriculture and food processing, we think a lot about infrastructure: transportation and storage, processing and packaging, distribution and delivery. It is a physical system of roads, railroads, and rivers; concrete and steel storage; processing plants, warehouses, and machinery; and, event...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.