Regional Updates MIDDLE EAST/MEDITERRANEAN COMMENTS Turkey’s total grain purchases from Russia are reported to have increased from 1.66 MMT in 2016/17 to 3.74 MMT in 2017/18 to date. This includes 2.64 MMT of wheat, 870,000 MT of corn and 190,000 MT of barley. USDA’s GSM-102 program has been revised to allow Turkish banks to transact its business in Israel. They were also previously approved to do the same in Africa and the Caucasus region. Egypt has boosted its Russian grain purchases from 1.2 MMT in 2016/17 to 4.3 MMT thus far in 2017/18, which consist mainly of wheat. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has lowered interest rates with its overnight lending rate dropping to 17.75 percent from 18.75 percent. Following the curr...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.