To feed the world, countries need to have more arable land than is needed to feed the domestic population and have a higher yield or crop output per unit of land. Even that may not be enough. Australia has both the land and the output but suffers from inconsistent moisture. Kazakhstan is in a similar situation. Sudan could be a larger contributor to global food supplies but suffers like many of its neighbors from inadequate land rights. Ukraine hits a sweet spot with an abundance of fertile soil and the ability to maximize output, seemingly even during war. Russia is in a similar situation, with economic sanctions having little impact on its agriculture sector. Underperforming is Argentina, which may prove the harm of punishing a sec...
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enters its mandated six-year review on 1 July. The original intent of the review is outlined in Article 34.7, which obligates members to: Provide recommendations and decide on appropriate actions. Extend the USMCA for another 16 years and meet aga...
Key Market Insights Geopolitical Limbo: Geopolitical risk remained a key driver across global commodity markets today. President Trump stated that the Iran memorandum of understanding is not yet final and warned that military action could resume if negotiations fail. Both sides continue w...
Key Takeaways: Drought remains a major threat to global agricultural production, particularly in regions with limited rainfall and growing water scarcity. Commercially available drought-tolerant traits in corn, soybeans, and wheat have generally delivered modest yield improvements, limiting th...
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.