Novel and Magnanimous Ukraine has 20 MMT of grain that need to be exported over the next three months before the next crop comes off the fields and needs a place to be stored. Without access to its ports, its current export capacity is 1.5 MMT/month. With hoped-for production this summer of an additional 30-40 MMT of commodities, there is a lot of food trying to squeeze through a rickety, old, land-based transportation network with conflicting standards. The EU proposed this week the creation of “solidarity lanes” whereby governing authorities would coordinate efforts to remove bottlenecks to Ukraine’s exports. On the one hand, boosting Ukrainian exports will lower EU farmer returns. But on the other it will reduce the le...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...
Key Takeaways: The Middle East and North Africa's arid climate and limited water resources have created a structural dependence on imported wheat. Government wheat tenders in major importing countries serve as important benchmarks for global trade, providing insight into exporter competitivene...
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.