Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MENA Region Pakistan has made “major amendments” to its biosafety regulations that it says will “simplify licensing procedures, ease import restrictions and facilitate laboratory research”. Companies will have to apply for licenses for specific GMO events which, when approved, would allow freedom for importation. Egypt continues to be the largest importer of wheat, importing as much as 13.0 MMT of wheat annually. The government has plans to increase local wheat production to 10 MMT and will purchase about 5.0 MMT for its subsidized bread program. Experts do not expect wheat imports to drop as population and consumption continue to increase. Also, private sector wh...
What You Need to Know Today: The U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes, with the U.S. hitting Iranian bridges, energy sites, and military infrastructure. Iran launched a missile into Kuwait that damaged a desalination plant. Crude oil futures surged on heightened Middle East tensions, providing supp...
Key Takeaways: The EU heatwaves have coincided with key maize crop reproductive timing and featured high nighttime temperatures, a cruel two-sided blow to maize yields. France, much of western Europe, and Hungary have suffered the worst of the heat, with yield potential collapsing. WPI&r...
From WPI Consulting
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.