This year’s La Niña event has been categorized as historically a moderate one. The rains coming to parts of South America this weekend attest to it not being a historically strong event. However, this makes guessing its final impact on crops more challenging to assess. Another challenge is the fact that crop production has changed dramatically over the years, particularly in Brazil. The last moderate La Niña occurred in 2011/2012 when Brazil was not even considered by USDA to be a major producer/exporter of corn. If 2011/2012 is nonetheless considered an analog year, between the January and June WASDE reports in 2012, USDA reduced the Argentine corn crop by 5 MMT (-19 percent) but raised the Brazilian crop by 8 MM...
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...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
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.