Sometimes officials overlook their own agency’s data and then misdiagnose a problem. This week, FAO Director General Qu Dongyu announced that 2021 would be the “Year of Fruits and Vegetables” as a gesture to promote increased consumption of these products. He then claimed that high levels of waste in these products were the result of “perishable products and complex supply chains.” But the data suggest otherwise. Using the FAO’s own data, global fruit and vegetable production has been outpacing the increase in population by more than double (see graph below). Other data show that consumption has been increasing and not just production. Secondly, long or complex supply chains have become fodder for politi...
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
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.