Corn Corn has become the darling of Argentina’s local markets this week. Prices have been volatile with swings averaging $7-8/MT. Despite the volatility, farmer selling has been strong, especially for the new crop. Even with some declines, prices are still excellent for farmers and offer strong production margins. It seems that the combination of a more stable forex market, good prices, and last week’s rains are encouraging farmers to sell at a faster pace. Farmers have sold nearly 80 percent of the old crop, but prices are good and there are still some farmers who need to sell or make payments for summer planting of corn and soybeans. Exporters found they can only buy some volume at 170Z FOB parity while the FOB market was bi...
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.