Virus Geopolitics The trade war had already caused changes in supply chains and now COVID-19 is adding to the reconsiderations. However, globalization involves an integration that isn’t easily reversed. As noted by technology analyst Benedict Evans, the world has 5.5 billion people over the age of 14 and 90 percent have access to a mobile phone, 80 percent of those being smart phones. The research and development race is going to exponentially change global integration. Farmers use smart phones to learn and implement changes in inputs but now there is work on using these devices to manage and enable individuals to avoid communicable diseases. Process Tariffs EU officials continue work on import tariffs to be applied based on carbon...
Key Takeaways: Export sales measure new commitments for future delivery, while export inspections provide a timelier gauge of grain that is physically moving through the export system. Sales and inspections often diverge from week to week because they measure different stages of the export pro...
What You Need to Know Today: The Brazilian real surged to start the week after a surprise election result in which right-wing Flavio Bolsonaro won the first round of the election. The swing in the U.S. dollar/Brazilian real (USD/BRL) exchange rate caused soybeans to jump sharply higher in earl...
Key Takeaways: Harvest pressure is fundamentally a timing issue: supply arrives much faster than demand can adjust, creating temporary weakness that can occur across crops and regions. The intensity of that pressure depends less on crop size alone than on how quickly grain moves into the syste...
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.