Argentina Dryness Currently the Soybean Trade’s Key Focus It is well known by observers of the global soybean market over the last decade that one of the key factors to watch is the weather situation in Argentina, which has a history of being quite variable from one year to next. Periodic flooding has impacted the country’s soybean production during the past few years, but a severe drought in 2009 and 2012 sharply reduced it and had a substantial effect on prices. Production declined from 46.2 MMT in 2008 to 40.1 MMT in 2009 and from 49 MMT in 2011 to 40.1 MMT the following year as well. It appears there is a growing chance Argentina may suffer another drought in 2018 with a similar effect. Parts of the country are curre...
What You Need to Know Today: After a period of limited activity, USDA reported a sizeable 613 KMT in soybean export sales, including 330 KMT to China and 283 KMT to unknown destinations, potentially also China. The purchases represent a meaningful pickup in demand and bring China closer to ful...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets remain mixed with Capesize vessels seeing continued pressure from weaker demand while fixtures and rate strength gradually increases towards the smaller vessel classes. Tanker markets are pulling back from their recent highs as tonnage moves out of the Mid...
From WPI Consulting
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.