World Perspectives
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Erroneous Data

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN produces a lot of data that could be useful, if it were accurate. The problems in the data have been ongoing for years and there is no effort to fix it. The gaps and flaws are readily apparent in the price database where data is either misreported or revealing of the adverse impacts of border measures. The data is always old, with 2017 the most recent available now. The problem of data being completely missing often involves developing countries, but not always. A search for major grain prices from Argentina and Brazil finds them missing, but Argentina reported beef prices for that year while France did not.   Turkey reported that the farmgate value of its sunflower crop in 2...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Cattle Hit New Records while Wheat Hits New Lows; Planting in Focus

The CBOT was mostly lower to start the week with expectations of favorable planting progress in this afternoon’s Crop Progress report creating much of the pressure. Wheat was the big loser for the day with favorable weather in the major growing regions prompting a strong wave of selling f...

Quick Hits

Canadian Elections: Canada is going to the polls today. Earlier in the year, the Liberal Party was out of favor in Canada, but Trump’s talk of the 51st State has changed the dynamics of the election. Canada has six time zones, so the final results will be in late tonight.  SCP Safegu...

Hard Hit with Benefits; American Consumerism; AI’s Trump Trade Solution

Hard Hit with Benefits U.S. agriculture will likely bear the brunt of retaliation by trading partners responding to Mr. Trump’s tariff war, but it could also be the largest beneficiary. Various capitals easily calculate that U.S. farmers strongly supported Trump for President, with farmin...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Cattle Hit New Records while Wheat Hits New Lows; Planting in Focus

The CBOT was mostly lower to start the week with expectations of favorable planting progress in this afternoon’s Crop Progress report creating much of the pressure. Wheat was the big loser for the day with favorable weather in the major growing regions prompting a strong wave of selling f...

Quick Hits

Canadian Elections: Canada is going to the polls today. Earlier in the year, the Liberal Party was out of favor in Canada, but Trump’s talk of the 51st State has changed the dynamics of the election. Canada has six time zones, so the final results will be in late tonight.  SCP Safegu...

Hard Hit with Benefits; American Consumerism; AI’s Trump Trade Solution

Hard Hit with Benefits U.S. agriculture will likely bear the brunt of retaliation by trading partners responding to Mr. Trump’s tariff war, but it could also be the largest beneficiary. Various capitals easily calculate that U.S. farmers strongly supported Trump for President, with farmin...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

WPI Crop Progress and Conditions App (Updated 28 April)

Update for 28 April 2025: Last year, users pointed out differences between the 5-year averages reported in this app and what USDA estimates in its weekly report. The difference exists because WPI calculates average based on the last 5 years of observations for the current week. In cases where o...

Image
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.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up