Inflation is back in the driver’s seat, and agriculture is getting pulled in two directions. A stronger dollar is pressuring grains despite fresh Chinese buying, while renewed Middle East attacks lift crude oil. Higher energy prices can support commodities, but they also raise expenses and make the inflation problem harder to shake. Outside Markets: September’s inflation report gave the dollar another push higher and commodities another hurdle. Consumer prices rose 0.6 percent on the month, lifting annual inflation to 3.7 percent from 3.4 percent. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, held at August’s 0.3 percent monthly pace rather than cooling to the expected 0.2 percent, bringing the annual rate to 2.6 percen...
Regional News European grocery stores have been targeted by cybersecurity attacks this week, with major retailers in France and the Netherlands affected. In France, major grocers, including Carrefour, Intermarché, and Coopérative U, all suffered attacks in which freezer and...
Key Takeaways: The EPA has proposed reallocating 770 million RINs associated with Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs), either splitting the volume equally between 2026 and 2027 or assigning the full amount to 2027. The agency granted exemptions covering 1.76 billion RINs for 2025, substantially e...
Russian Grain Markets: 5–9 October 2026 During the week in review Russian grain market remained relatively stable. The market finally realized that Black Sea trade may not resume soon so most of the trade calculations were done in the direction of Baltic Sea, Caspian Sea, Barents Sea and...
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.