The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Outlook Forum is taking place this week, covering key agricultural topics, unveiling the 10-year long-term baseline forecast, and providing commodity outlook updates. Further, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the International Emergency E...
Dry bulk ocean freight markets are once again seeing diverging trends across the Atlantic and Pacific basins. Key to this divergence is the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, which started last weekend and will last through 3 March. That is putting much of Asia on hold for trading and vessel inqui...
Tariff Impacts Calculating the impacts of President Trump’s tariffs is heavy fodder for economists. Many made predictions about their impacts long before the rubber even met the road. Predictions of a tariff-caused recession have been debunked, and there is little impact on inflation. Now...
Regional News EU cattle markets remain relatively unchanged from recent weeks, with German and Austrian prices falling slightly amid carnival-period reduced interest. EU hog and pig markets have started to stabilize, with the “backlog” of market-ready animals largely cle...
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.