China's Ministry of Commerce is currently indicating the country's December soybean imports will be about 6.8 MMT, but that number is far below the likely total of well above 8 MMT. USDA inspected 8.737 MMT of soybeans destined for China in November. Big Increase in Conab's Forecast for Brazilian Soybeans The Brazilian Agriculture Ministry's supply agency (Conab) yesterday surprised the market when it sharply raised its forecast for Brazil's 2015 soybean crop by 5.9 percent from 90.5 MMT to 95.8 MMT. If realized, the crop would be 9.7 MMT (11 percent) greater than the 2014 production and the largest in history by far. Conab based its increase on expectations of a 6 percent rise in average yields this year to 3.033 MT/hectare (45.1 bushels...
What You Need to Know Today: Oil prices surged today following reports of tanker attacks off the coast of Saudi Arabia by Houthi rebels and renewed U.S. threats to escalate military strikes against Iran, heightening concerns over potential disruptions to Middle East energy supplies. Brent crud...
Key Takeaways: The latest UN data shows solid progress reducing global hunger and food insecurity. The geography of hunger-affected people has shifted substantially, however, and Africa is now the most affected region. To understand why hunger patterns have shifted and what policy option...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report for 1 July will be released tomorrow. Analysts’ pre-report consensus estimates are for the total inventory on feed to be 102.2 percent of last year. Those estimates imply an on-feed inventory of 11.327 million head. If accurate, that would be the...
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.