Soybeans Market Overview The soybean market was very slow last week as it was shortened by the Easter-related holiday. It was even slower today as Monday is also a holiday in Europe with most of the freight departments, which are mainly based there, not working. A few cargoes were traded last week from Brazil to China. May traded at 115K CNF, while there was some demand for June FOB and CNF positions. The Brazilian real fell to 3.94 against the USD by the end of the week, although this did not stimulate much farmer selling. Low CME prices combined with low basis are hardly encouraging farmers to sell. Demand is mostly focused on nearby positions, leaving trading houses in a very uncomfortable position since they cannot buy positions in...
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.