Regional News The EU Commission imposed an import tax on Russian wheat, corn, products derived from their processing, and feed. The duties range from €95-148/MT for various wheat varieties, €94/MT for grain corn, €93/MT for barley and rye, 3.2-64 percent for sunflower oil, and a 50 percent ad valorem rate for most oilseeds. The full list of tariffs is available here: https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9541-2024-INIT/en/pdf. Analysts are pointing to daily rains and cloudy weather in France and Germany that are reflective of May 2016, when crops struggled significantly. If conditions do not improve significantly in early June, crops’ slow development may start to further negatively impact yield...
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.
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...