Given the current state of China’s economy and its slowdown, the food inflation spike in January to the highest level since May 2014 plus the notable increases in pork/fresh produce prices raise several interesting issues. Cultural Note and the Market Chinese Holidays Impact Crushing Facilities The annual Lantern Festival, also known as the First Night Festival, occurs today and marks the end of the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) celebrations. The holiday has been celebrated for more than 2,000 years and signals the coming Chinese Lunar Year. With these back-to-back holidays (Spring and Lantern) taking place, the market has been slow as many of the soybean crushing facilities either sharply reduced operations or shut down completely...
What You Need to Know Today: Agricultural commodities were mostly lower on the day, with red-hot soyoil a notable exception. Export sales were a bit underwhelming, particularly for corn with export sales down 52 percent week-over-week. The weakness in ag markets tracked crude oil weakness wit...
With the war in Iran affecting fuel and fertilizer prices, higher tariffs, weak commodity prices, ag labor constraints, and other factors, farm bankruptcies are now at a 6-year high, a signal of growing stress. During the month of April, 62 Chapter 12 bankruptcies were filed, which is a 1...
WPI recently completed an expansion of our methodology for estimating and forecasting U.S. and global soybean crushing margins. The new approach incorporates the energy market’s expanding influence on the oilseed sector and the structural changes in global biofuel demand. This report is i...
From WPI Consulting
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.