Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA After the problem with the Ever Given in the Suez Canal, the Egyptian government is said to be looking at the possibility of expanding the canal. There has also been some talk of a new canal from the Gulf of Aqaba, through Israel, to the Mediterranean. Officials in Egypt have been quoted as saying that the grounding was the result of an error by the ship’s captain and not due to the high winds and the dust storm. Egypt has started a new system of import pre-clearance that it says will “modernize and automate customs administration, simplify procedures and reduce clearance times”. The system started on 1 April on a test basis with ful...
Weather concerns and the impacts of the war in Iran helped push wheat and corn to sharp gains Tuesday, with both markets blowing past key technical resistance levels. The weather is now coupled with geopolitical tensions that look increasingly hard to resolve, which is giving funds the perfect...
Congress is moving forward with its FY 2027 spending bills, while also still working to address FY 2026 funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is still in a shutdown. The House Agriculture-FDA Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and passed its FY 2027 bill. The House bill prov...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Tunisian researchers have been able to fully sequence the genomes of two local durum wheat types that have been grown in Tunisia for generations. They say that this “could be the key to developing more climate-resistant duru...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.