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
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.