Certain clients have asked if it would not be equally advantageous to hedge next season's production in more actively traded nearby contracts rather than in the more distant "new crop" December contract. After all, when looking at long-term charts, nearby and distant contracts appear to move with great harmony. The short answer is, absolutely not!The producer of a crop can suffer financial ruin by choosing to hedge future production in a closer nearby contract. That scenario is particularly dangerous in a year such as this one, when ending stocks for the current old crop year are anticipated to be very tight. For clarity's sake, please consider the following discussion and hypothetical example:In a normal growing season with ample supplie...
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
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.