India's sugar price has improved considerably in the past three months, rising 15.9 percent from a low spot price of $466.20/MT in Kolhapur (Maharashtra) on 12 January to $540.37/MT on 31 March. Meanwhile, the sugarcane crop forecast has implications for domestic ethanol production. Lower Sugar Production, Higher Prices As a result of two consecutive years of drought, India’s sugar production is expected to drop 9 percent from a record 27.84 MMT in 2014/15 to 25.6-25.7 MMT in 2015/16. According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the volume totaled 23.7 MMT as of 31 March 2016 and from the beginning of sugar year 2015/16 (1 October 2015) or about 1.1 MMT less than at the same time last year. Additional production is expected to...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets remain mixed with Capesize vessels seeing continued pressure from weaker demand while fixtures and rate strength gradually increases towards the smaller vessel classes. Tanker markets are pulling back from their recent highs as tonnage moves out of the Mid...
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.