World Perspectives
feed-grains

Beer Crisis

Canada and the U.S. typically produce about one-fifth of the global supply of malting barley, with Canada accounting for over 60 percent of the total. Last year’s drought sent North American barley production down by over 50 percent and this year’s crop is still the second smallest in years. Ending stocks have not recovered at the same time beer makers and livestock feeders compete for more limited supplies. The result is that prices this year remain elevated and approach last year’s levels. Malting barley comes from the highest quality barley and is typically produced under contract. Barley typically has half the production cost of corn, and a net return that is just slightly lower. Assuming good weather, this is a marke...

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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.

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