After hitting the lowest global sugar ending stocks in more than a dozen years, production is making a rebound. Production is expected to jump 6 percent to its highest level since 2017/18. While some of the rebound will go to the benefit of biofuel makers, most will go to human consumption. While this is to the chagrin of health experts or warn against its intake, sugar is integral to the food industry. First for its sweetness but for a variety of other attributes including serving as a preservative, a texture modifier, a fermentation substrate, for general flavoring, as a coloring agent, and a bulking agent. There are substitutes but not all are natural or as preferrable to consumers. ...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets are mixed this week with larger vessel classes seeing strong demand from iron ore and coal while Supramax and Handysize rates remain steady. Congestion at the Panama Canal has eased but forward booking slots are showing signs of bottlenecks as draft levels...
Key Takeaways: Ghana’s new law classifies all cocoa plantations as “protected farms,” which carries significant implications for farmers. Chief among these implications is the inability to switch area under cocoa to other crops, even when economic or biological conditio...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.