Regional News Ukraine is increasingly becoming the dominant supplier of grains from the Black Sea region. Ukrainian grain exports are up 49 percent YTD at 1.7 MMT, with wheat exports down just 3 percent YTD. Ukraine’s early-season exports have benefitted from Russia’s export taxes and tight Russian supplies/slow origination that are making Russian offers hard to find. The EU Commission’s MARS crop monitoring unit said recent heavy rains and flooding in France, Germany, and Ukraine will reduce wheat quality rather than yields. That would imply a higher supply of feed-grade wheat and possible supply tightness in milling-grade wheat for domestic use and export. The EU Commission pegged the EU-27 2021 whea...
Key Market Insights Today was another reminder that this market is trading headlines first, facts second. Early optimism surrounding reports of a possible U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding helped pressure energy risk premium and kept the broader commodity space defensive. An hour later, how...
Dangerously Clueless Lazy analysts and food system critics have shifted attention temporarily from how bad our food is (UPFs,) to why it is expensive. Bloomberg correctly sites higher labor costs, tariffs, weather (El Niño), fertilizer prices, higher energy and transportation costs, the...
Russian Grains Market, 18-22 May 2026 Last week, Russian grain markets remained bullish all over the European part of the country. This times, even the Asian regions saw prices recover to new levels. This rally occurred on the heels of zero export duties and a very strong RUB. The rally i...
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.