Since the post-World War II era and the establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the WTO, there has been one general rule of thumb: economic growth in developing countries drives commodity demand, be it for energy, raw materials or agriculture and food. Looking ahead at the next decade that trend is not likely to go away. World GDP is now about $121 trillion in real inflation adjusted 2010 dollars, with the 36 countries of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accounting for about 43 percent. The remaining 57 percent of GDP is accounted for by non-OECD countries, many of them developing economies. Over the next 10 years, that gap will expand to non-OECD countries accountin...
Real GDP grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2026, slightly below the consensus expectation of 2.3 percent but above the 0.5 percent growth in Q4 2025. The GDP number matches the average annualized pace of growth since the peak back in late 2007, right before the Financial P...
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...
An amendment to the U.S. House farm bill, aiming to remove the Save Our Bacon Act language in Section 12006 that would have stripped language to prohibit California’s Proposition 12, Massachusetts’ Question 3, and up to 500 state agricultural laws across the country, was blocked by...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.