News Updates SOUTH AFRICAN MAIZE DEFICIT: IS IT REAL? Recent shipments of corn from Romania to South Africa reportedly were needed to cover the latter's expected shortage of corn that was caused by very high exports in 2011. However, now we see that another 400,000 MT of South African maize from current stocks has been sold to Mexico, which makes us wonder how bad the deficit is. Perhaps this incident was more a case of selling to Mexico at an attractive price and then importing corn at a much lower price. Is there really a corn deficit in South Africa, or is this just an opportunity for profit? EBRD INVESTMENT Earlier in 2011, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it would expand its program to include agricu...
Key Takeaways: President Trump announced $8 billion in additional agricultural assistance through the Harvest Fuel Relief Program, as USDA projects farm fuel and oil expenses will increase 28.8 percent in 2026. The package follows $12 billion in earlier relief, while government farm payments w...
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...
Beef packer margins deteriorated to $141/head last week, down $55 from the prior week as fed cattle prices strengthened while the Choice cutout remained nearly unchanged. The cutout held near $373/cwt while fed cattle prices climbed $4/cwt to $224/cwt, narrowing processor profits. Despite the d...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.