Corn Despite stable FAS prices near $200-205/MT, Argentina’s market saw traded volume decrease. Even so, October is almost here, and farmers have sold 40 MMT of corn and ongoing volumes are still significant. Farmers sold more than 1.2 MMT in the first three weeks of September and more than 2 MMT during August. Prices are good and with the prospect of a bumper crop appearing in 2022, selling now seems like a good strategy. Also, it seems the crop could have been a bit higher than expectations of 50.5 MMT. Exporters have come close to buying the total export surplus (38.5 MMT) and have registered export sales for 36.5 MMT, and plan to continue registering. Notably, however, exporters haven’t sold those 36.5 MMT yet. Expor...
Key Takeaways: The United States shifted from a decades-long agricultural trade surplus to a growing deficit, reaching roughly forty-one to forty-four billion dollars in recent fiscal years, a structural change rather than a cyclical dip. Brazil has overtaken the United States as the leading s...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets are steady/firmer this week with Handysize vessels making the biggest gains. In particular, strong grain demand has improved Handysize rates, along with charterers dipping down into the smaller vessel classes after the recent Panamax and Supra/Ultramax ral...
Markets have no shortage of headlines today, but the reaction depends on what sits underneath them. Strong economic growth comes with renewed inflation pressure. Higher crude inventories do little to solve tight diesel supplies. Rain is delaying one crop while helping another, and trade expecta...
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.