At the start of the wheat season, it was thought in India that international prices could rise if large volumes of wheat were to be imported. That has not occurred, however, and GOI has taken a step to facilitate those imports while making assurances regarding the open market there. Slashed Wheat Duty to Boost Imports After much discussion and pressure from the market, the government of India (GOI) reduced the wheat import duty last week from 25 percent to 10 percent, effective immediately until February 2017. Trade considers that to be a rollback as the duty was increased to 25 percent in June 2016. Some view it an acknowledgement of the shortfall in wheat production and resulting need for imports to address the supply/demand gap and kee...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets remain mixed with Capesize vessels seeing continued pressure from weaker demand while fixtures and rate strength gradually increases towards the smaller vessel classes. Tanker markets are pulling back from their recent highs as tonnage moves out of the Mid...
Inflation is back in the driver’s seat, and agriculture is getting pulled in two directions. A stronger dollar is pressuring grains despite fresh Chinese buying, while renewed Middle East attacks lift crude oil. Higher energy prices can support commodities, but they also raise expenses an...
Regional News European grocery stores have been targeted by cybersecurity attacks this week, with major retailers in France and the Netherlands affected. In France, major grocers, including Carrefour, Intermarché, and Coopérative U, all suffered attacks in which freezer and...
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.