Rejecting Progress Two decades ago, the WTO held its Fifth Ministerial in Cancún, Mexico. At the time, Mexico’s campesinos or peasant farmers protested that free trade was ruinous to their lifestyle. They took reporters on tours of peasant farmers, showing off how the farmer worked one hectare of land by hand while the family lived on the dirt floor of a one room abode. Now La Via Camposina, which led the protests back in 2003, plans a 20th anniversary “International Day Against the WTO and Free Trade Agreements” to be held on 10 September. They are demanding the same lifestyle (kids on the dirt floor) and calling it necessary for food sovereignty. Since that time, Mexico’s agricultural exports to the...
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
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.