Regional News French traders continue to express concern about losing wheat market share with Algeria and now China increasingly relying on Russian wheat. Recent news that China waived phytosanitary requirements for Russian wheat and barley are increasing worries that the Middle Kingdom, so far a major buyer of French wheat given the poor quality of the 2021/22 harvest, will favor Russian grain going forward. The weather in northern Africa remains hot and dry, which is escalating concerns for a significant crop-damaging drought in the region. European traders are watching the situation carefully as a crop failure in the region could pull large volumes of wheat, barely, and maize from the EU into Africa. Additionally, parts of...
What You Need to Know Today: Corn and soybean futures were lower to open the week, with funds still in control and in a selling mood. The upcoming WASDE report on Tuesday is also likely to feature larger corn and soybean stocks, which helped put grain futures on the defensive. Wheat futures we...
Key Takeaways: Currency exchange rates influence agricultural export competitiveness and producer profitability, even when underlying commodity prices remain unchanged. A weaker domestic currency allows agricultural exporters to receive more local currency for dollar-denominated sales, potenti...
Soybeans Brazil Last week was once again very quiet, with very few trades. There is little activity in Brazil's old-crop market, with virtually no old-crop offers remaining for November. Brazil's export lineup for November and December is currently much smaller than last year's. After exporting...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.