Addressing The Economist conference this week on "Feeding the World," WTO Director General Pascal Lamy queried: "First, is it safe that the world's agricultural food production remains concentrated in only a handful of countries? ... For example, 85 percent of all soybeans on the international market are exported by only two countries." We have several reactions to this nonsense.Mr. Lamy himself acknowledged in his speech that agricultural products are only 7 percent of all trade. Therefore, we conclude that only a few countries may control the trade in major bulk commodities, but they don't control much. Ninety percent of all grains manage to be produced domestically, which cannot be said for most other goods. Only a few countries in the...
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...
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.