Livestock Live Hog Price Sees Slight Gain During Holiday Week Some analysts and the leadership at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) had expected pig prices to rise with the Labor Day holiday week, which ended yesterday. According to surveys from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), however, the national average price, which fluctuated a bit over the five-day holiday that began on 29 April, only rose by just RMB .07/kg ($.01/kg) through Wednesday. As the Labor Day celebrations are one of China’s three Golden Week holidays (the others are the Lunar New Year and National Day), market optimists had expected a renewed tourism boom would drive up meat consumption. China’s Tourism Academy recently st...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
Key Takeaways: Drought remains a major threat to global agricultural production, particularly in regions with limited rainfall and growing water scarcity. Commercially available drought-tolerant traits in corn, soybeans, and wheat have generally delivered modest yield improvements, limiting th...
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.