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: CBOT markets pared Monday’s sharp losses as traders booked short profits and adjusted positions ahead of the Grain Stocks report that USDA will release Wednesday afternoon. The 7-day QPF forecast from NOAA now shows heavy rain across the central and western C...
Key Takeaways: Comparative advantage encourages countries to specialize in goods they can produce at a lower opportunity cost and rely on trade for others. Differences in climate, land, infrastructure, and technology help determine where agricultural commodities can be produced most efficientl...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Iran is reported to have completed its rail link from the border with Afghanistan to the Iranian port of Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman — the link is expected to be fully operational in early 2027. This will be Afghanistan&rsq...
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.