U.S. grain transportation markets are slowly recovering from the shocks of bitter cold weather and low water levels on the Mississippi River System and from the surge in export demand. The latter is also causing strong rallies in ocean freight markets, particularly in the Atlantic basin. With g...
Key Market Developments Markets head into Friday’s CPI report expecting a 0.3 percent month-over-month increase in both headline and core inflation, keeping year-over-year readings near +2.5 percent. That matters — but perhaps not as much as it would have a few weeks ago. This week&...
Sovereignty and Competitiveness So-called food sovereignty has animated European politics for decades. Now there is AI sovereignty because English is annoying or a national security risk. Taxes, regulations, and fines are thrown at dominant foreign companies to the point that Bloomberg says som...
The recent February World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report forecast beef production to increase in 2026 due to greater slaughter of steers and heifers, increased cow slaughter, and heavier dressed weights, all of which will provide some relief to the beef market. Also, th...
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.