April and May corn basis have started to heat up in Argentina due to several factors. There are still some shorts in the market, and those with port logistics will sell only at an attractive basis quote. Meanwhile, demand for deferred shipments (July onward) is still absent following release of the WASDE report. Soybeans Argentina Argentina’s soybean harvest has started to make progress after last week’s rains and reached approximately 12 percent, which is 6 percent behind last year’s pace. There are 1 million hectares under water, so the national production of 57 MMT could drop to 56 MMT. That depends on weather conditions in the next few weeks, but yields are still very good at an average 3.6 MT/hectare despite the rains.The soybean ma...
What You Need to Know Today: The U.S. conducted “self-defense strikes” in Iran and said the two sides are “close” to negotiating a ceasefire. “Close” is a relative term, however, and even if 95 percent of the terms are agreed to, the remaining 5 percent is l...
As we reported on 19 May, China has also committed to the resumption of U.S. poultry imports from states without confirmed HPAI detections. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has updated its China export restrictions webpage to reflect that China has lifted HPAI-rel...
Key Takeaways: Brazil has been the second-largest producer of fuel ethanol globally, but almost all of it was derived from sugarcane until recently. Corn ethanol production has increased due to expanded second-crop corn production, sugarcane storage limitations, and biofuel policy. Brazil is e...
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.