News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The Egyptian government announced on Sunday that it is cutting the wheat flour subsidy to bakeries and that the flour will be sold at market prices. However, bread will be 100 percent subsidized. Bakers are complaining that the new subsidy formula for bread sales will not cover the flour and operating costs. The price of flour is increasing from $2.59/100 kilograms to $44.00/100 kilograms; the government allows bakers about $1.23/100 kilograms for production costs, but bakers say the cost is actually $1.85/100 kilograms. There will be no change to the retail cost as a result of this change, but with the subsidy applied strictly to bread, there will be little incentive for flour to be diverted into the animal fe...
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.
Key Takeaways: Brazil confirmed a Newcastle disease outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Santa Catarina on 18 October, raising concerns about potential disruptions to poultry exports despite the outbreak being confined to a single facility thus far. Mexico and Malaysia have imposed nationwi...
Yesterday, Alberta held a referendum on whether to begin the process toward independence from Canada. With more than one million votes counted as of early Tuesday morning, around 77 percent supported remaining in Canada, and 23 percent voted to start the process of separation, according to unof...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Pakistan’s smaller wheat farmers have been holding protests to complain about the lack of a support price for wheat and the potential expansion of GMO crop production. They also want the reinstatement of PASSCO, the governme...