World Perspectives

Wisdom of Traders; All About the Shekels; For Politicians, Not People

Wisdom of Traders Sometimes it takes 50 yeas of experience in an industry to have the wisdom and courage to speak the truth. Derek Chambers, a semi-retired cocoa trader, had good words of advice at this week’s Cocoa Merchants Association of America conference in Miami. He advised delegates to stop wasting money by paying nongovernmental groups for ineffective sustainability and fair-trade certification schemes. Chambers argued that the cocoa industry is “not responsible for low cocoa prices, poverty, child labor and deforestation…and…cocoa farmers are not poor because they grow cocoa, they grow cocoa because they are poor.” Instead, he argues poor governance is to blame and everyone would be better off if t...

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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.

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