The repeated threat of sanctions by the EU and U.S. were not enough to prevent Vladimir Putin from moving on Ukraine, and they likely will not be enough to affect Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. He has been the president of the country for most of the past 15 years and the U.S. argues it is because he has repressed his political rivals. Washington is threatening to either remove Nicaragua’s access to the U.S. sugar import quota or kick the country out of CAFTA. Of those two choices, CAFTA bears more weight. Nicaragua already has a relatively small share of the U.S. sugar import quota. It represents just 2.9 percent of Nicaraguan agricultural exports to the U.S. By contrast, ending the broader CAFTA trade agreement benefits received by Ni...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets remain mixed with Capesize rates turning around from their recent weakness and posting solid gains on improved Chinese demand. Panamax vessels, on the other hand, saw rates decline amid greater tonnage availability in the South Atlantic and falling U.S. Gu...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.