Although Russia's current grain harvest lags behind the results of a year ago, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergey Levin announced today that the current forecast of 100 MMT may only be revised upward in the future. Russian Grain Markets Harvest Update As of 17 August 2015, 59 MMT of grains were harvested from 20.4 million hectares (43.4 percent of the target) compared with 62.1 MMT from 19.6 million hectares in 2014. This included 43 MMT of winter and spring wheat from 13.3 million hectares and 10.9 MMT of winter and spring barley from 4.4 million hectares. Additionally, 278,200 MT of rapeseed were harvested from 140,700 hectares. Planting Update Winter crops were planted on 321,500 hectares (1.9 percent of the target) as of 17 Augu...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
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.