General Comments The proposed acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the InterContinental Exchange (ICE) is a continuation of the pattern of consolidation among derivative and equity exchanges that has been underway for several years. Essentially, these consolidations are efforts to combine or add the trading volumes of 2 or more exchanges as a means of making up for lost revenues due to user pressure on trading costs. Increasing volume to help offset low margins is a trend present in the grain trade for many decades. Whether or not the acquisition will pass anti-trust inspection in Europe and the U.S. is an unanswered question, but at least the two organizations have very little overlap, which was not the case in other recent proposals to pu...
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...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
From WPI Consulting
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.