EU trade negotiators will reportedly offer their U.S. counterparts tariff elimination on 96 percent of goods, and while tariffs will remain on sensitive products like pork and beef, larger tariff rate quotas will be offered. Aid to the Irrelevant USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack famously ascribed problems passing a farm bill as follows, "It's the fact that rural America with a shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country." Yet today the President of the United States signed into law a farm bill written by Congress that is exactly what rural America lobbied for, plus he announced a new "Made in Rural America" export and investment initiative. Admittedly, the new initiative is an odd set of platitudes. A...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Unlike the 2022 fertilizer shock, today’s disruption is rooted less in rerouted trade flows and more in damaged production capacity, raw material constraints and uncertain recovery timelines. That makes this a longer-duration risk for U.S. agricultural producers and retailers who must sec...
From WPI Consulting
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.