Bloomberg notes the problems confronting small scale olive oil producers in Spain and Italy. Production is volatile and has been under duress from drought and climate change. As a result, the price has risen, attracting investors who are creating larger scale farms. The article says, “The Super farms offer superior metrics.” They are planting 8 – 10 times as many trees per hectare, yielding 40 to 140 percent more oil per hectare, and using automation to harvest the olives at half the production cost. Unable to compete economically, the small producers have sought to differentiate their oil by claiming it has superior health and quality attributes. However, for large buyers in the U.S., price will continue to be an important factor. 102...
What You Need to Know Today: Last week’s Trump-Xi meetings included China agreeing to roll back $60 billion in tariffs on a huge swath of U.S. ag products, just notably not soybeans. The exclusion of soybeans from the tariff-reduction list means China’s state-run importers COFCO an...
Key Takeaways: The U.S.-China agreement lowers tariffs on several U.S. agricultural products, but the lack of additional soybean commitments or greater certainty surrounding China’s existing 25 MMT purchase pledge made the deal a slight disappointment. Lower tariffs on U.S. corn are unli...
Wheat Argentina Wheat crop conditions remain broadly favorable despite a week marked by frost and localized hailstorms. Currently, 94.6 percent of the crop is rated Normal to Excellent. The most severe storms were reported in central-northern Córdoba and central-eastern Entre Ríos...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.