India’s Vegetable Oil Demand and Imports Both Higher in 2017/18 India’s overall vegetable oil imports reached 15.573 MMT for 2017/18 (March-April), a 9.53 percent increase from 14.217 MMT the previous year. This included 15.181 MMT of edible oil and 0.392 MMT of nonedible oil, up from 13.975 MMT and 0.242 MMT, respectively. Palm oil’s share of all edible oil imports was over 60 percent as Malaysia withdrew its export duty on that variety. India imported 9.293 MMT (crude, refined, etc.) in 2016/17, which comprised 62 percent of the total imports, and 3.795 MMT from November 2017 to March 2018 (the first five months of the oil year), up slightly from 3.553 MMT during the same period of the previous oil year. That volume of...
What You Need to Know Today: Market attention is shifting toward Tuesday’s USDA WASDE report, with analysts anticipating a modest reduction in U.S. corn production estimates and an increase in soybean production. The report could provide fresh direction for grain markets as traders reass...
Key Takeaways: WPI’s forecasts call for physical U.S. soybean crushing margins to weaken over the next four months and average $4.44/bushel by late February, while CBOT futures margins should rise modestly to about $2.40/bushel. A key catalyst for this is the expectation that U.S...
Regional News Black Sea trade dynamics remain central to European wheat and corn pricing, with the reported 26 percent increase in Ukraine’s October grain shipments adding pressure to markets. Concurrently, markets are waiting for the scheduled trilateral peace talks between the U.S...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.