Shipping and refrigeration costs become larger factors in trade during periods of high energy prices such as the present. Suppliers with lower energy costs for food processing can arbitrage that advantage by shipping dehydrated product to countries with higher refrigeration costs. A good example is dried egg for the food processing industry. However, sometimes lower costs alone are not the determinant of trading. In the case of dried eggs, the U.S. producer average value of eggs is 46 percent less than the average value of Europe’s main exporters (Netherlands, France, Germany) of dried egg product. In addition, U.S. energy costs are lower with electricity priced at 50 percent less than three EU country average, slightly lower than Fra...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
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.