Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA/AFRICA – MEA REGION Israel has the highest cost of living in the Middle East region, followed by Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi. Morocco has the highest cost of living in North Africa followed by Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. Morocco is expected to show a 62 percent increase in wheat and barley production in 2023/24 on the assumption that the prolonged drought comes to an end. Wheat production is forecast to reach 3 MMT of common wheat plus 1 MMT of durum and 1.3 MMT of barley. However, these forecasted increased production levels are still below pre-drought levels and may take a couple of years to fully recover. Egypt will receive a $431 million grant from th...
What You Need to Know Today: The U.S. and Iran reportedly agreed to pause hostilities to allow vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz this week (theoretically, at least). There were some rumors of a possible Chinese blockade against Taiwan. Analysts are looking for the largest U.S. 1 June cor...
Proposition 12: The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has advocated for a fix to Proposition 12, the California animal welfare law, in the Senate farm bill. The House version of the farm bill included a fix, but the Senate bill, based on the discussion draft released by Chairman John Boozm...
Key Takeaways: Indonesia will raise its biodiesel mandate from B40 to B50 on 1 July, increasing palm oil–based diesel blending to 50 percent. The policy supports domestic palm oil demand and reduces reliance on imported diesel. Indonesia’s biodiesel program has steadily expanded si...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.