One way or another, today’s grain and soy futures market action was all about China and the critical negotiations that began later this afternoon. We call them critical because in the current acrimonious atmosphere, the results of the meetings today and Friday will probably determine whether talks continue following the Chinese retreat from what the Americans thought were firm commitments written into the draft agreement. Tariffs go from 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods at 12:01 a.m. (EDT) Friday unless there is a remarkable turnaround in today’s negotiations. Meanwhile, President Trump received a “beautiful letter” from Chinese President Xi indicating “he wanted to work together” and &ld...
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.