Europe’s new Farm to Fork strategy includes ambitious targets to reduce fertilizer and pesticide use, which should yield some skepticism. The goal is to slash fertilizer use by 20 percent and cut the amount of pesticides and antibiotics in use by 50 percent – all by 2030. There is also the target of tripling the amount of land in organic production to 25 percent of area. Officials clarify this is a “vision,” which means it is unlikely to be achieved. Fertilizer use has already declined by 30 percent from its peak in 1985 but the application of potash and phosphate is forecast by the industry to increase. Most fertilizer is used for cereal and oilseed crops, so competitor producers in the Americas will be cheer...
As Cuba's economic crisis has deepened, discussions about the country's eventual economic and political transition have reemerged. One question that inevitably follows is what opportunities might emerge for U.S. agricultural exports. So, here’s a brief review of those opportunities, but n...
Key Takeaways Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is increasing steadily, despite a precarious political situation. The increased flow of vessels through the SOH is pressuring tanker rates, though total volumes remain well below pre-war levels. The big issue in the Strait of Hormu...
WPI Grain Prices and Freight Rate App Note: you can also visit the app directly by clicking here. Supplemental Information The section below offers a concise view of the options available in the current version of the WPI FOB Price and Freight Rate app, along with a short “...
Can we really expect a bushel of corn to carry an environmental passport throughout the entire food system? One that reliably documents its carbon footprint, biodiversity impacts, water use, soil carbon, and other environmental attributes all the way from the farm field to the consumer? This is...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.