Palm Oil Prices Near Bottom? Anyone who has been watching the palm oil market knows palm oil prices have plummeted in recent months. Weighed down by expanding production mainly in Indonesia, the FOB price of crude palm oil at Indonesian ports now is around $740/MT, or 33.6 cents per pound. That means palm oil now is trading at about a $340/MT discount to Argentine soyoil. This is very large discount by historical standards, and one that is causing countries like China and India to step up purchases and for the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia to explore acting together to underpin prices.It should be no real surprise that palm oil prices would fall sharply at some point because of excess production. USDA is forecasting Indonesia's p...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.