Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Cosco Shipping Ports bought a 40 percent interest in privately owned Red Sea Gateway Terminal that operates its own container terminal in Saudi’s Jeddah Port. The terminal handles just over 5 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent) containers per year but has expansion plans to reach 9 million TEU. Iran says that it will purchase 10 MMT of local wheat in 2020/21 which will cover 90 percent of all wheat requirements. Jordan reports that it has enough wheat, on hand and on order, to cover all requirements for 19 months. 980,000 MT are in storage in Jordan with another 601,000 MT to be delivered. Jordan consumes about 80,0...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...
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.