Yet another book is being written about the need for a strategic food reserve, this one by an organization with the “unbiased” name of “ACTION for Food Reserves.” It asserts the usual warning that “Two bad harvests in a row could mean famine for the world.” To the author’s point, food surpluses are also burdensome since they impose lower incomes on producers. But as WPI’s Bob Kohlmeyer often notes, governments have historically had troubles managing reserves and reserves can be price depressing as well. It is the reason that even adept government managers like the Chinese have been shedding surpluses. The 2007/08 food security scare was mostly the latter, a scare rather than a tru...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.