World Perspectives
feed-grains

El Niño Sparks Corn Demand

Corn production in Sub-Saharan Africa has been volatile for decades but when technology and investment should have been making it less so, it has instead gotten worse.  This year’s El Niño has helped make a bad situation worse. USAID’s Famine Early Warning System Network identified the problem many months ago when rainfall during December- February, the normally peak precipitation months, was underwhelming. The agency predicted “crisis level” food aid requirements in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar.  South Africa has had to import white corn for the first time since 2017, and Zambia’s corn crop was down by 50 percent and could require 1 MMT in imports. The situation could rev...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Waiting for Confirmation or Contradiction

The CBOT was mostly in the red to start the week with the bullishness from Friday’s WASDE report failing to trigger enthusiasm from bulls this week. Corn and soybeans both tried to rally and follow Friday’s bullish action, but quickly triggered farmer/hedge selling and profit taking...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.2325/bushel, down $0.0675 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $5.25/bushel, up $0.015 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.4275/bushel, down $0.035 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $285.7/short ton, down $2.9...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds

Mercosur Regional Analysis

Corn  Argentina’s 2024/25 corn harvest is virtually complete, with only isolated fields still being collected. Final output is expected to exceed 50 MMT. Attention now shifts to the 2025/26 crop, where planted area is projected at 7.8 million hectares — surpassed only by the 20...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Waiting for Confirmation or Contradiction

The CBOT was mostly in the red to start the week with the bullishness from Friday’s WASDE report failing to trigger enthusiasm from bulls this week. Corn and soybeans both tried to rally and follow Friday’s bullish action, but quickly triggered farmer/hedge selling and profit taking...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.2325/bushel, down $0.0675 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $5.25/bushel, up $0.015 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.4275/bushel, down $0.035 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $285.7/short ton, down $2.9...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds

Mercosur Regional Analysis

Corn  Argentina’s 2024/25 corn harvest is virtually complete, with only isolated fields still being collected. Final output is expected to exceed 50 MMT. Attention now shifts to the 2025/26 crop, where planted area is projected at 7.8 million hectares — surpassed only by the 20...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

European Market Analysis

Milling Wheat  Global wheat futures all hit new contract lows last week with strong Russian exports (at cheaper prices), larger global production estimates, and few weather risks driving the bearish momentum. Markets managed to pare back those losses, however, by the week’s end and a...

Image
From WPI Consulting

Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up