Macroeconomics Food Prices See Their Smallest Uptick in 13 Months While food prices this past April were up year-on-year for the 13th consecutive month, the uptick of .4 percent represented the smallest gain during that period. Prior to that run from December 2021 through March 2022, the average cost of food had fallen for four consecutive months compared to the year prior. Among the various food categories, the rate of inflation eased for cooking oil, eggs, and fresh fruit, which saw increases of 4.8 percent, 1.2 percent, and 5.3 percent. However, their rate of change was markedly slower than in March. Similarly, the average cost of pork advanced higher by 4 percent from a year ago, but that was substantially lower than in March when the...
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...
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.