World Perspectives

Cuban Pipedream

Some in the U.S. agriculture community have spent years trying to improve sales to Cuba, which have increased though from a very small base. Now there is even less reason to think they’ll succeed. Their pipedream has been a hungry population of around 11 million people just 60 miles off the American coast. But Cubans are relatively poor and growing more so. The city-state of Singapore has half the population of Cuba but nine times the GDP per capita and buys twice as much American farm products. The government envisions converting to market socialism but is still so redistributive and state controlled that the economy has failed to evolve. Now add to the burdens hurricanes, an earthquake and power blackouts. Its energy imports have plu...

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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.

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