World Perspectives

Amateur Hour

As the U.S. and China reportedly near the conclusion of bilateral trade negotiations, Trump administration officials are turning their focus to Japan, though in somewhat unhelpful ways. Perhaps anxious to placate farmers who have borne the adverse brunt of the president’s trade wars and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) withdrawal, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said maybe agriculture would be the focus in the first phase of negotiations with Tokyo. However, leading with Japan’s most defensive issue is unlikely to bear the best result for American farmers. Preferably, a negotiator builds a stack of deliverables to the other side in order to build a position for making demands. Then National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow spe...

Related Articles

FOB Prices and Freight Rates App (Updated 23 July)

WPI Grain Prices and Freight Rate App Note: you can also visit the app directly by clicking here. Supplemental Information The section below offers a concise view of the options available in the current version of the WPI FOB Price and Freight Rate app, along with a short “How To”...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Weather Premia Withdrawn; Trade Talks Make Progress

CBOT futures saw mixed trade Tuesday with summer row crops pulling back amid a favorable Midwest weather forecast while wheat turned higher on slow sales from Russia. Corn and soybeans saw weaker trade develop overnight after the Crop Conditions report was positive and the weather forecasts con...

Ready for War; Deals Trickly In

Ready for War Europe has not won a kinetic war without U.S. help, but one German official quoted by the Wall Street Journal boasted, “If they [U.S.] want war, they will get war.” Admittedly, Europe has been far better at defensive trade policy than it has been at fighting Russian ag...

FOB Prices and Freight Rates App (Updated 23 July)

WPI Grain Prices and Freight Rate App Note: you can also visit the app directly by clicking here. Supplemental Information The section below offers a concise view of the options available in the current version of the WPI FOB Price and Freight Rate app, along with a short “How To”...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Weather Premia Withdrawn; Trade Talks Make Progress

CBOT futures saw mixed trade Tuesday with summer row crops pulling back amid a favorable Midwest weather forecast while wheat turned higher on slow sales from Russia. Corn and soybeans saw weaker trade develop overnight after the Crop Conditions report was positive and the weather forecasts con...

Ready for War; Deals Trickly In

Ready for War Europe has not won a kinetic war without U.S. help, but one German official quoted by the Wall Street Journal boasted, “If they [U.S.] want war, they will get war.” Admittedly, Europe has been far better at defensive trade policy than it has been at fighting Russian ag...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.18/bushel, down $0.0425 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.495/bushel, up $0.0725 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.255/bushel, down $0.005 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $286.8/short ton, up $2 from...

Image
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.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up