World Perspectives

Fixing the WTO; The Winner is Ag

Fixing the WTO The 13th Ministerial Conference last month in Abu Dhabi was yet another failure by the WTO. Now Singapore has proposed a retreat to discuss fundamental fixes needed to stop the long string of failures. Ultimately, the structural problems of the WTO involve one country, one vote and the necessity of consensus. Gambia with just 1.4 million people and a $2 billion economy has the same voting power as China with 1.4 billion people and $17.7 trillion in GDP. None of the other Bretton Woods institutions have this flaw. The UN is prejudiced toward the more powerful countries via the Security Council. The bias of the IMF and World Bank is toward economic size and capital contributions.  The majority involves poorer countries a...

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Export Sales and Shipments for March 6-12, 2026. Wheat: Net sales of 189,900 metric tons (MT) for 2025/2026 were down 58 percent from the previous week and 36 percent from the prior 4-week average. Export shipments of 383,100 MT were down 11 percent from the previous week and 7 percent from the...

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Market Commentary: Energy Pulls Futures Higher, For Now

Tomorrow is Nowruz (spring equinox), the Persian New Year, but there will likely be no break from the war. There continued to be upward price pressure on grains and oilseeds, chasing the spike in fossil fuel prices. There may be ample fertilizer for Northern Hemisphere crops nearing planting ti...

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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.

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