Corn prices in India continue on an upward trend as both supplies and hope for good availability next season dwindle. Similarly, egg prices are also on the rise due to conditions that are impacting the production regions for both sectors. India's Worsening Cotton Situation Available sowing data indicates that India's cotton acreage of 10.191 million hectares on 31 July 2015 was 2.79 percent lower than a year ago. There is still time for additional planting, and the Cotton Association of India (CAI) expects that the total area will ultimately be similar to last year's. Production is expected to reach 38.275 bales (same as 2014/15), far more than the domestic requirement, and prices are bound to crash again in 2015/16. The Cotton Corporatio...
The corn and soy complex closed higher, with the wheat market mixed, as winter wheat closed up but spring wheat and livestock ended lower. Part of the strength for corn and soybeans may have been a weather premium, as crop planting has started out fast but warm weather has been slow to develop...
Reflect for a moment on what you eat. There is a lot of advice out there in the ether about what you should eat, but really, what do you currently eat and how much? The good people at the USDA have some data for you, to help you answer that question. USDA says that we eat quite a bit of meat. L...
WPI recently completed an expansion of our methodology for estimating and forecasting U.S. and global soybean crushing margins. The new approach incorporates the energy market’s expanding influence on the oilseed sector and the structural changes in global biofuel demand. This report is i...
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.