Soybeans The soybean markets finally started moving with China actively buying at the beginning of last week. Crushers there decided to move after President Trump’s tweet suggesting that U.S. and Chinese officials might not meet in September. They assume there will be no opportunity to buy U.S. soybeans in the near future, and modest improvements in their margins prompted the decision to secure supplies from South America. It is now clear that demand has only been moving when crush margins are positive. Last week showed sudden demand for nearby positions. Buyers have been interested in securing spot soybeans to take advantage of the cheapest basis. However, that pushed spot basis higher and reduced the carry from 11-12 cents/m...
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.