World Perspectives
livestock

Pick Your Poison

Given China’s pork shortage and its concurrent sensitivity to imports, some have speculated that pork has been entering the country, or is poised to, via unofficial pathways. Many countries are talking about shortening supply chains and increasing self-sufficiency. Taiwan went the opposite way several years ago when its national economic planning commission calculated that land was too precious for pork production and instead the focus should be on microchips. Instead of investing in more pork, the government created the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which grew into the largest microchip supplier in the world. The microchip market is every bit as tough and competitive as the pork industry but potentially more pro...

Related Articles

WPI Transportation Report

Dry Bulk Markets The Capesize market is up more than 80 percent from last week’s report due to greatly improved iron ore demand in the Atlantic. There has been a notable increase in inquiries for vessels from Brazil and West Africa for the August/LH September time frame. Additionally, Aus...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Quirky Day in a Quirky Week

It was a somewhat quirky day as grains took their lumps and soyoil supported beans. There was a new contract low in HRW, low volume trading corn and livestock, but high volume in soyoil. After trading 40,000 contracts, December soymeal settled unchanged, and moving in mere fractions, September...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.21/bushel, down $0.03 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.335/bushel, down $0.0775 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.265/bushel, up $0.06 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $283.5/short ton, up $0 from ye...

WPI Transportation Report

Dry Bulk Markets The Capesize market is up more than 80 percent from last week’s report due to greatly improved iron ore demand in the Atlantic. There has been a notable increase in inquiries for vessels from Brazil and West Africa for the August/LH September time frame. Additionally, Aus...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Quirky Day in a Quirky Week

It was a somewhat quirky day as grains took their lumps and soyoil supported beans. There was a new contract low in HRW, low volume trading corn and livestock, but high volume in soyoil. After trading 40,000 contracts, December soymeal settled unchanged, and moving in mere fractions, September...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.21/bushel, down $0.03 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.335/bushel, down $0.0775 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.265/bushel, up $0.06 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $283.5/short ton, up $0 from ye...

Identifying Mispricing Opportunities in Ag Futures

In many ways, human nature is fascinated with the future – predicting what will and what could be and formulating plans accordingly. This is one factor that makes commodity futures markets inherently intriguing – their role in foretelling the future. As WPI readers have likely exper...

Image
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.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up