New Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last week stressed the importance of developing modern agriculture and scale farming in China. During his research tour to the Yangtze River Delta region, Li said that developing modern agriculture "through the forms of joint partnership, family farmers and farmer cooperatives is the big direction" for the country. Li also stressed economic development in regional cities in rural areas in order to create jobs for displaced farmers. Strategies for these regional urban areas include free trade zones to accommodate off-shore manufacturing from other countries and domestic distribution in China. Li called this "a new round of opening up."China is pursuing a number of ways to implement these changes. Most rural lan...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Pakistan’s smaller wheat farmers have been holding protests to complain about the lack of a support price for wheat and the potential expansion of GMO crop production. They also want the reinstatement of PASSCO, the governme...
What You Need to Know Today: Harvest pressure in the U.S. sent corn and soybeans lower as supplies increased and there were signs USDA’s upward revisions to yields in the October WASDE could be close to right. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated over the weekend, with Ukrai...
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.