World Perspectives

Food Trade with Russia

Western countries kicked Russia out of the WTO’s Developed Countries Coordinating Group and are seeking to remove normal trade relations with Moscow. Banning energy imports from Russia is understandably difficult but ending food trade would be a minor change. This is because Russia has long run import substitution schemes in food and retaliated against food imports from the West in 2014 in response to sanctions over Crimea.  The EU has fared better than the U.S. in the Russian market, though both mostly ship value added foods that don’t compete directly with Russian farmers. The EU mostly exports services to Russia, and some manufactured products to support Russian industry. It is time to end export market development in R...

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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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