Regional News The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic continues to exert massive influence on global markets and traders’ appetite for risk has all but completely disappeared. One of the biggest impacts of the global pandemic on ag commodities has been through collapsing crude oil prices and from investor “flight to safety” that has pushed the U.S. dollar sharply higher against global currencies. The rising U.S. dollar helped UK wheat futures rally 10 pounds/ton last week as the British pound/U.S. dollar rate fell to its lowest levels since 1985. Similarly, the rising dollar/falling euro helped Paris wheat futures 7 euros/MT higher last week, though prices were $1/MT lower when expressed in U.S. dollar terms. The...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.