The day’s big news – as WPI readers will likely already know – was that a vessel carrying Ukrainian corn left the Black Sea this morning destined for Lebanon. This is the first maritime export of grain since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February and suggests near-term world grain supplies could be growing. Notably, however, the agreement signed two weeks ago by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN is only valid for 120 days, which means there is some risk supplies from the Black Sea could tighten again in late November at the height of the Ukrainian new crop corn export potential. One also wonders if Russia might intentionally let the agreement expire to benefit its own grain export program. That is certainly a cynical vi...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
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.