Yesterday's announcement of the sale of the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBOT) to the CME Group is another reminder of just how much the grain business in the United States has changed since the mid-20th century. When we first became involved with it, there were grain exchanges of one sort or another located in most major origination or processing markets and/or locations where different modes of transportation met. As originally established, some of them tried to emulate Chicago and operate grain and oilseed futures markets as well as a cash grain trade. However, besides the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) the only grain futures markets that managed to survive were the hard red winter wheat contract at the KCBOT and the spring wheat contra...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.