At the end of July 2024, WPI published an article looking at the drivers of the cocoa market’s massive rally in 2023 and 2024 and that offered an outlook for MY 2024/25. This article offers a brief update on market conditions and developments that have occurred in the two months since our last analysis. Short-Run Dynamics ICE cocoa futures have rallied sharply this week with the March contract up $669/MT amid tighter global stockpiles, currency dynamics, and West African cocoa production. ICE-monitored cocoa inventories in U.S. ports have been trending lower for the past 15 months and hit a 15-year low on Tuesday at 1.998 million bags. London cocoa futures also added to their gains this week when the British pounds slipp...
In a letter last week to President Trump, Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), wrote that diesel prices are squeezing farmers’ margins. As Duvall wrote: Higher diesel expenses are hitting farmers at one of the most fuel-intensive times of the year —...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Sri Lanka poultry producer associations say that the delay in approving maize imports is pushing prices for poultry meat and eggs higher. Producers have had to use rice for feed rather than maize due to a lack of supply, and many...
Key Takeaways: Harvest pressure is fundamentally a timing issue: supply arrives much faster than demand can adjust, creating temporary weakness that can occur across crops and regions. The intensity of that pressure depends less on crop size alone than on how quickly grain moves into the syste...
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.