Policy Whiplash A few weeks ago, and under pressure over food security concerns, EU Executive Vice President and Green Deal cheerleader Frans Timmermans relented and said the impacts of Farm to Fork will be analyzed. Now it is conceded that EU models confirm USDA’s earlier analysis about the impacts of F2F, it will reduce production and raise prices. No, the F2F reductions in pesticide and fertilizer use are said to be “aspirational targets” and not mandates. They will “adjust” to ensure no loss of productivity in the transition from old (bad) technologies to new ones. This seems like a much more reasonable approach than what was previously implied. Farmers in Germany and Netherlands are protesting the input r...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
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.