Regional News Egypt is increasingly finding itself caught between Russia and Ukraine, in a battle for supplying its domestic wheat markets. Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, is facing political pressure and wooing from both Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky as they seek to establish themselves as suppliers to the market. Russia said it was entering discussions with Egypt to build a grain and energy trading hub in the latter country, while Ukraine said it is pressuring Egypt to not accept grain taken from its territories currently occupied by Russia. The dynamic could alter the general import trends for Egypt and the surrounding regions, but is unlikely to have a direct impact on U.S. wheat trade o...
What You Need to Know Today: Tensions in the Middle East escalated over the weekend with Iran demanding the U.S. make multiple concessions that are likely non-starters before traffic can flow through the Strait of Hormuz again. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey signed a mutual defense agreeme...
Senator John Boozman (R-Arkansas) has urged farmers to apply pressure on the failed farm bill during the August recess. His intent is to hold another vote on the legislation as soon as possible upon the Senate’s return from a five-week break on 14 September. From a parliamentary perspecti...
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.